Chineese junk parts

[reynoldston]

Had just got done rebuilding a HS50 Tecumseh on a wood splitter. It started right up and ran perfect. The only thing was it would only run for about 5 min's and the engine would quit running. One pull with the rope and it would be running again with the same problem over again. I was thinking a fuel problem but everything was new. So being desperate I just ran a bypass fuel line right to the carburetor and problem solved. The only thing that I added to the fuel line was a new shut off valve. The shut off valve was made in China and for some reason the fuel would stop flowing through the valve after I would run the engine for a short time. Who would think you could have a problem with a simple fuel shut off valve. Just more Chinese junk to watch out for.

 

[Lawnboy18]

This is hard to believe! A valve failling. Something so simple!!! Gonna have to get one made in the US I guess.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Yep some God fearing, church going, flag saluting American has gone to China with a good quality USA made in line fuel valve and asked them to make 1,000,000 that look just like this for 10¢ each and that is exactly what they did.
If you pop it apart you will find the rubbe seal swolen and perhaps even a little sticky because it is made from neoprene or just plain synthetic rubber instead of Buytyl rubber.

Then he sold them to some smug distributor for 50¢ who sold them to the retailers for $ 1.00 who sold it to you for $ 2.50

I dropped on of my suppliers over the exact same thing.
I had to do about 30 warrantee repairs to replace the faulty valves.
The ones I got supplied as a replacement were just as bad, just the valve was a different color so a second bunch of warrantee jobs and the account closed.
They were dumbfounded that I would close the account over such a trivial thing.
The fact that it represented in a total lack of any sort of quality control escaped them and if they could not get a tap right what were the chances on something complicated like a module filter or blade.

 

[reynoldston]

I did buy the valves wholesale and bought 6 of them. So I bought 6 junk valves not one at 1 dollar each. So that is 6 dollars out the window. That isn't the bad part, it was over the hours of labor trying to find out why the gas would stop flowing that I had to eat. I have bought a lot of filters and a few tools from the same company with very good luck with them. I only buy from this company once a year at a trade show so I stock up.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Could hsve been a lot worse
You might have 6 new customers telling every one you are a idiot because the mower you fixed stop working 3 weeks latter and then had to front 6 angry customers

 

[reynoldston]

Could hsve been a lot worse
You might have 6 new customers telling every one you are a idiot because the mower you fixed stop working 3 weeks latter and then had to front 6 angry customers

This is the reason I road test all my work before delivery. I am not perfect and will miss something at times, but not if I can help it. Just lucky I had a pile of fire wood to split. If you are in the repair trade you will know that things can be missed no matter how hard you try.

 

[bertsmobile1]

This is the reason I road test all my work before delivery. I am not perfect and will miss something at times, but not if I can help it. Just lucky I had a pile of fire wood to split. If you are in the repair trade you will know that things can be missed no matter how hard you try.

Oh yeah.
There is a lot of acres of farm behind the workshop, 2-3 acres of roadside verge and nothing goes out till I have run at least 1/2 tank through it.
So easy to slip up and having anything up to 20 jobs running in the workshop at any one time does not help things.
Only testing trouble I do have is all the fencers, there are only so many places you can dig a 20" post hole.

 

[reynoldston]

Oh yeah.
There is a lot of acres of farm behind the workshop, 2-3 acres of roadside verge and nothing goes out till I have run at least 1/2 tank through it.
So easy to slip up and having anything up to 20 jobs running in the workshop at any one time does not help things.
Only testing trouble I do have is all the fencers, there are only so many places you can dig a 20" post hole.

20 jobs in the shop at one time, you sure are working at a larger scale then I am. I might get 25 to 30 jobs for the whole season but I am retired and only will work at one job at a time. How to you keep on tract as to what you are doing with that many jobs going at one time and the pressure to get the jobs done has to be out of this world. Sure glad its you and not me.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Yeah,
It gets a bit busy, we just got 4" of rain and it's been around 30 deg C so the jobs are pouring in the door.
The bulk go out in a week and simple things get done while the customer waits.
Most shops have a 2 week wait for a quote right now then another 7 to 10 days for the repair.
The MTD, Cox, Stihl & Shindawa warehouses all have minimum orders of $1000 to $ 10000 so I have to wait till the shops put in an order which is one reason why I buy so much direct from the USA.
Kohler parts are strait highway robbery so they have to come in from the US as well 3 to 5 weeks.
Stiga parts have to come in from the UK because the local distributor ( All Power) is a joke & Stens/ Ariens have just appointed them as their distribution agent. They have the record , 14 months for 2 spindles that were in stock at the warehouse when I placed the order.
Then I get impossible jobs like World Lawn where I have to go to the importer with the broken part so they can match it up to what they might have in the warehouse because they do not have their parts inventory listed by World Lawn part numbers.
I have 3 of their Honda look alikes waiting for Conwire to come back from holidays to remake the broken control cables. This costs more than the original part but is quicker and the cable will actually fit properly where as original parts often don't, ( Cheap Chineese to a T ).
The actual turn around is about 20 to 30 per week in season and 5 or so out of season May - September.
I have about a dozen old ride ons that are not sellable because of rust or missing bonnets etc , so they go out on loan for long time repairs.
Same for push mowers, got plenty of good reliable ones that are not pretty enough to get sold.
Ditto for chainsaws so the pressure for finishing a job is not too bad and I sell a lot of gear this way because they find the old mower I loaned them dose their lawns quicker & easier than the new wizz bang, way too big mower I am repairing.

 

[reynoldston]

It sounds to me that a part time repair business in Australia is impossible. I thought that parts was a problem here in the USA because I sure couldn't afford to go through what you have to buy parts. If that is such a problem with a lawn mower what does a car or large truck owner do for repairs in Australia. Sounds to me that the customer is the loser over there. If someone depended on a vehicle to make a living and it needed repairs it could put them out of business.