| Author | Message | ||
     Jfridrich |
Anyone out there having problems getting parts from HD??? My primary cove on my 08 Ulysses failed in August. I order and paid for a new one on September 1. Still waiting... | ||
| Rwven |
Took me 3 months to get rocker box gaskets, and a cooling fan.... | ||
| Hughlysses |
John- Depending on what broke, it's possible to repair those covers. What exactly broke? | ||
| Zimbra |
I took my 08 Uly to Hal's Harley-Davidson near Milwaukee and they noted that there was an outstanding recall on a windshield part. I was impressed that they actually had the part in stock and were able to address the recall on the spot! My Uly is new to me and I haven't had a lot of experience with Hal's but they seem to be off to a good start. Maybe they would have the parts you need. | ||
| Nobuell |
Knock on wood, I've received everything ordered within a few days. | ||
| Druelly |
Contact Al at American Sport Bikes. I have to get a new primary cover and I believe he has some options that might suit your needs. Hugh, The two little nubs??? broke on my Primary Cover when I had clutch problems last year. They hold the tang in place. Can those be fixed? Druelly (Message edited by Druelly on April 18, 2011) | ||
| Johndb |
Obiewan did a nice repair detailed here if this is your failure mode: http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/384 2/282980.html?1181096600 | ||
| Froggy |
The problem you are having is that you ordered an old part. 08 was the last year for the magnesium colored primary cover, the 09's and 10's were wrinkle black. Getting a black cover would be next to no wait, but getting the older cover will require a wait as they probably don't have them laying around anymore. Your best bet is either to have them change the order to a black cover, or get a used cover off ebay or the classifieds. | ||
| Dbolemiss |
Chicago Harley-Davidson, never again. Been waiting for almost two months on some odds and ends. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Hugh, The two little nubs??? broke on my Primary Cover when I had clutch problems last year. They hold the tang in place. Can those be fixed? Druelly Druelly- yep- see the thread Johndb linked above. Odie's repair makes it better than new. | ||
| Rwven |
Dbolemiss, Chicago HD had some problems early this year with a rule change HD Corporate made concerning international sales. It really screwed up their ordering system. I think they've got it straightened out now, I just placed an order with them so we will see. Of course, if HD doesn't have the part available it doesn't matter who you order it from... | ||
| Debueller |
I'm concerned why these primary covers break in the first place: http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/327 77/593997.html Mine left me stranded over one thousand miles from home......and they are almost $300.....if you can find one.  | ||
| Froggy |
+1, I placed a small order for a pair of XB filters and some drainplug o-rings, took several months for them to figure it out and ship it, and that was before the Buell closing. They ended up showing up one day and I totally forgot I had ordered them. Debueller, the clutch ramp isn't the best designed part of the cover (possibly for cost savings), but every time I've seen it break it was due to an incorrectly adjusted clutch causing too much stress. My original cover has been fine for nearly 50k miles. | ||
| Ratbuell |
...And that's saying something. Knowing Froggy its probably been on the ground or sandwiched between cars quite a few times in those 50,000 miles  +1000 on CORRECT adjustment and maintenance procedures. | ||
| Swampy |
I just ordered Blast Drive pulley bolts from Chicago H-D(spit) of course they had to order them, so I wait 4 weeks and they show up. I ordered five CA0004.97A, I receive five CA0005.97A. So I send an email and tell them I think you sent me the wrong parts, they tell me, CA0004.XX have been superceded by CA0004.97A. I told them that is fine, you sent me the wrong part. They said I will send you a return authorization, I told them it doesn't make any sense to mail back $5 worth of parts for $7, I will just keep them, send me the correct ones, they tell me, we don't have them in stock, we will have to order them  So now I ordered the same bolts from Bumpus plus $150 of spare Uly parts, lets see who can deliver first....LOL My recommendation, when you have the money, order as many spare parts as possible. | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
My recommendation is to buy as many shares of GPRE as possible. Ethanol use is going up up up. | ||
| Rwven |
Swampy, Did you order online or by phone? If you do it online you put the #'s in yourself and you can check your account to make sure the right # has been ordered. That doesn't mean that someone won't screw up somewhere else in the chain of course.... | ||
| Motorbike |
My recommendation, when you have the money, order as many spare parts as possible. The problem with that is deciding what to order for spare parts. We all know there are a few items on these bikes that tend to give trouble. Wheel bearings and belts for example. A person could stock up and buy 90% of all the parts on these bikes and the one part that fails could be in the 10% that you did not stock. This one part could very well leave you walking. I see no way to decide exactly which spare parts to order. Secondly, let's say a wheel bearing fails half way across Nebraska. Even if you have the new bearings along, how are you going to change them? How like likely is it that any shop in the nearest town will have the proper tools or know-how to do it for you? I feel that the best you can do is good preventive maintenance and careful inspection for tell-tale signs of failing parts well ahead of any planned trips. It seems that pulling a trailer full of extra parts would just take away from the experience, wouldn't it? | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Motorbike, +1 Also, how many of these spares get sold when the bike goes on the auction block. Pennies back on the dollar usually. That said, a spare belt is probably not a bad investment. Wish I had one, other than the one that crapped out at 25,000 miles that I have hanging on a hook in the garage. | ||
| Andymnelson |
Well since you asked, I'll tell you a couple of stories On the way to Homecoming last year, in the middle of NOWHERE, WI (we took the fun way ), one of our group had his rear bearings fail. Ted had just met up with us a few miles back. Ted just happened to be carrying a spare set of bearings. In the middle of this nothing of a town, we found a mechanic who was kind enough to let us borrow some tools and wrench in his driveway. Took the wheel off, and hitchhiked to the John Deere shop- figured they must be able to install bearings. Pulled the old bearings and the inner race stuck, which is a bear to remove. The old guy at the JD shop says "no problem, I'll going to heat it up real hot with the torch, toss a cup of cold water on it. It will steam a bunch and the race will pop right out.". Sure enough! Pressed the new bearings in, went back to the shop to install the wheel and kept riding! Down time of about 1 hour! So Pat bought Ted a new set of spares at Hal's during Homecoming, so he would have his spares on his way home. Guess who's rear bearing failed on his way home?? Yup, Ted's. Except now it's Sunday and no one is around. Turns out a cop stopped to see if he needed help...and helped him get to the fire house, let him in and let him use any tools he could find! Ted swapped his bearings there in the firehouse. CRAZY! So it can be done | ||
| Motorbike |
Andy, thanks for sharing that interesting story! You guys really lucked out. I would have never thought of stopping at a John Deere shop to work on a Buell but it is kinda fitting if you think about it! I guess maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to at least carry rear bearings and a belt, as many have recommended. Back in '78 a friend and I rode from MN to Yellowstone and back on our 400 and 500 Hondas. My '76 CB400F started running on only 2 of it's 4 cylinders. We figured out that a condensor had failed so one set of points was arcing like a welder. We doubled up on his 500 and rode 60 miles back to Pierre SD and found a Honda dealership. It was Sunday AM and of course they were closed. We got the name of the owner from a gas station across the street and called the guy up. He kindly agreed to come in and look for the part for us but did not have it in stock. After he left, we were looking around the back of his shop and found an old 750 Honda, hopefully not a customer's bike. We hated to do it but were forced to "borrow" a condensor from that bike. After going back and installing it on my 400, the bike fired right up on all 4 and we continued the rest of the trip trouble free! We still laugh about that today, and I still feel guilty.  | ||
| Druelly |
Okay I think I understand both of the methods used to fix this, well both are really the same just that one is good for me as I don't have the tools to make the new plate all fancy and stuff, I like the use of electrical parts on my bike. I still have one question, and that is how does the tang stay in its proper location when it is covered up by the plate? Maybe I am missing something, but it is not clear to me how to put the clutch back together with that plate in the way. If anyone can explain that too me I would greatly appreciate it. I do have the SM, but since this is a home grown how too, it won't be in the manual. If I should be posting this in the other threads, let me know. Druelly | ||
| Towpro |
I feel the parts problem you are experiencing is the results of something called JIT http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-in-time_%28busin ess%29 The problem is inventory cost money to buy, and it provides no income while it sits in your warehouse, and I think it cost tax money every year. You order the part from the dealer but since they don't sell Buell anymore, they need to order it from HD. HD practices JIT, so they order it from the manufacture. At one time the manufacture always had this stuff in stock because they were constantly supplying the assembly line. But now there is no assembly line demand so they wait until they have enough orders to make a production run before supplying the parts to HD. This is why stuff will be in stock with HD HQ, then the following week they are on 8 week back order. My fear was "Now that these suppliers no longer have the income from producing product for a production assembly line, how long will they stay in business?" If the suppler goes belly up, It will be easy for HD to say "we can't get the parts anymore" when they break any belief we have that they are going to support these bikes for X years to come. Luckily the Buell owners still have people like Al (and others who advertise here) who stock enough inventory to bridge these back orders gaps. At least this is my belief. I could very well be wrong. (Message edited by towpro on April 22, 2011) | ||
| Froggy |
Twopro, HD has made significant cutbacks including closing the Franklin distribution center. Getting a part today is more likely to have an extended lead time than 2 years ago due to these cuts, and thats even if its a current production part on a Harley. If you lurk on a Harley forum, you will see complaint threads similar to ours. | ||
| Rwven |
The rear brake light switch I ordered was in stock but I'm back-ordered because of the crush washers. Why would a parts manager stock one without the other? | ||
| Swampy |
Rwven, I ordered the correct part number, they in turn ordered the correct part number, when some unknown part number came in, they shipped the wrong part number. I got a couple of follow-up emails confirming the status of the order. | ||
| Skifastbadly |
Ok, Towpro just sent me on a rant. JIT does not save money, it simply shifts the expense from the OEM to the supplier. This is a theme in business these days, some snot nosed little MBA figures out how to shove cost out of his department, collects his bonus, and is promoted before the chickens come home to roost. I was in the audience when the Land Rover manufacturing IT manager admitted he was just pushing cost out to his suppliers with JIT. Another example of bogus optimization pushing the cost out to the customer, when the airlines undergo disruption (volcanoes in Iceland, tornadoes in St. Louis) who pays the price? The passengers. Because the airlines have no slack, they've figured out how to optimize their routes which works great when everything runs perfectly which it never does. Another example, you have a computer problem? Prepare to spend two hours on the phone with an outsourced help desk who will piss away your time asking questions like "are you sure you have power" and telling you "the HDMI card will not support a TV of that size you need to purchase an external video card" (this really happened to me. HP saved millions of dollars by outsourcing and the cost was picked up by thousands of consumers pissing away hours on the phone. Hmmm, I seem to be turning into a cranky old man. Perhaps it's time for a ride. | ||
| Froggy |
Ski, I can assure you that regardless of where their helpdesk is based out of, they suck equally. I work with Dell pretty frequently, the only difference between the Indian, the Phillipino, American, and wherever else they have call centers, the only difference is the accent. Interesting about the JIT shifting costs, I never thought about it like that. | ||
| Towpro |
I agree Sky, I am not saying it's a good thing for the consumer, but if the Bean Counters (that don't even ride) at HD can shift the cost to the suppliers they will, and they then receive there bonus. And I am also in IT. Nothing pisses me off more then calling for support and they ask me "is it plugged in?" | ||
| Cycletlh |
Last fall I ordered a new windshield, primary gear, rocker box gaskets, fan, belt and other parts. Arrived in less than a week. I think those that are having to wait have a dealer problem. I ordered from Surdyke.com. | ||
| Swampy |
AAANND.......BUMPUS WINS BY A MILE! The parts arrived yesterday, none of my house mates let me know they had arrived, I found them in the seat of a chair stuffed under the kitchen table! I received everything that I ordered, so I made another phone call and ordered more parts. One good order deserves another. I am stocking up on spares, you know I can't be standing around waiting on parts,especially when we only have 3 weeks of riding weather. |
