From: mikel@berlioz.nsc.com (Michael G. Lohmeyer)
Newsgroups: ba.motorcycles
Subject: Re: Problem with Grand Prix Maintenance Shop
Keywords: grand prix maintainance fraud
Date: 7 Jan 93 04:13:24 GMT
Organization: National Semiconductor Corporation, Santa Clara

In article <1993Jan6.191518.9211@netcom.com> bethd@netcom.com (Beth Dixon) writes:
>In article <1993Jan6.013650.20656@wdl.loral.com> csk@wdl50.wdl.loral.com (Chuck Kuczaj) writes:
>>I would also appreciate it if any other people who have had problems
>>with this shop would get in touch with me.  Perhaps we could work
>>something out together.
>>Thanks in advance for any advise/information.

     I have dealt with Pete at Grand Prix several times on work I was doing 
on a couple dirt bikes.  My experiences are good and bad.  The good stuff is
that I was able to get some good information from him about setting the timing
on my bike and also on some other aspects of it.  From this, I get the idea
that he is willing to work with people and help them out.  I also had him
measure and hone out the cylinder on one of the dirt bikes so that I could
make sure my new piston would work in it while I was rebuilding it.  I had
no complaints there either.  

     The only bad thing that I have ever had happen with Pete there is that
I asked him to drill out and rethread a head bolt for me on the bike I was
rebuilding.  This is a fairly simple thing to do, but I didn't feel like 
dealing with it at the time, so I asked him to do it for me.  He did and 
charged me a little over $30 for it.  That seemed reasonable.  The only 
problem was that when I picked it up, he said that I shouldn't try to torque
it down to more than about 8 ft-lbs.  At first, I was not worried about this,
but later I realized that this was not good at all because I needed to take
it to 16 ft-lbs (acording to the manual) and anything less than that leaked.
So, he really didn't do anything for me.

     Later on, I realized what the problem was when the same bolt stripped out
again.  They used an insert (similar to a heli coil, but larger and better)
so they could tread the hole out to the next size larger and use the same
bolt.  This should have been fine, but they really needed something that 
allowed them to thread it out 2 sizes larger.  The one they used did not 
get enough meat when they threaded it and stripped out almost immediatly,
even at the 8 ft-lbs he said.  

     I finally solved the problem by getting a new insert (a much better one
than what they used) and threading it out about 3 or 4 sized larger than the 
original 8 mm bold and I was still able to use the original bolt.  

     I guess this could have been a simple mistake, but as I said before, 
threading a bolt hole is pretty simple to do and what I got from him was not
that great.

     So I have had several good experiences and one bad experience there.
Unfortunatly, I can't report on any major repair work there.

     I have had no problems with their parts department there, but then most
the parts I ask for I don't expect them to have anyway.  The dirt bikes I 
have are late 70's.

     By the way, a heli coil is a spring like thingy that allows you to 
thread a hole out to say 9 mm, screw in the heli coil and screw in an 8 mm
bolt.  It basically reduces the hole size by one mm and can often be used
for striped hole threads.  I prefer inserts, though, because they are solid
instead of spring like.  The one I finally used was a standard (SAE) thread
on the outside so that I could easly find a tap for it, but it had an 8 mm
thread on the inside.  I got it at Home Depot (not all of them have it).

Mike
-------------
Mike Lohmeyer				mikel@berlioz.nsc.com
Jan Jose CA
(408) 721-8075
Newsgroups: ba.motorcycles