On Thu, 19 Dec 2002, Timothy Holbrook wrote:
> Because the parts suppliers continue to sell the crappy bearings, and
> many people don't know about the issue (they may not have been list
> serve members at the time it was discussed, or maybe didn't follow
> along, etc).
Just a comment on this. Yes, there are a lot of people that are on this
list. However, it is totally ludricrous to assume that this list touches
even a modest fraction of current TR6 owners out there. There are probably
a few hundred list members, there are likely tens-of-thousands of TR6's
still on the road!
The same holds true to the actual organizations - VTR, Six Pack etc. With
membership in the low thousands, it's simply false that a published
article for any organization makes it out to all TR6 owners.
Here in the US, there is not as much enthusiasm to "join" all the
available clubs. It would seem that in the UK and the continent that there
is more participation, but these other countries don't have the same
geography that we do and that is a really big factor for enthusiasts here.
As a point of information (regarding club membership and Triumph
ownership), when New England Triumphs ran the VTR National in 1999, we had
VTR send out about 3000 "flyers". This was the current list of VTR
membership. We also contacted TRF. They offered us so many potential
targets, that we had to limit our direct mailing to what our budget could
afford. If I recall correctly, the number that TRF listed as active
customers in the Northeast (New England, NY, PA and NJ) was in the 10,000
range. We didn't budget $3k for mailings, so we wound up taking a subset
based on zip code (and I think we only sent to states with "0" as the
first digit of the zip.
> These bad parts are going to be in the supply chain for a
> while, so this problem will continue until everyone gets educated.
I'm sorry to say - my opinion is that the "bad parts (whatever that means)
will be in the chain 'till they're all sold. Period. There are plenty of
folks out there (myself included) that are driven to purchase parts on
price points. I won't pay $100 for a $40 part.
If you want to rectify this situation, you need to build a strong case
that the extra cost involved in selling the parts (from the vendor
perspective) will build strong customer response.
On the subject of engine bearings, for example, the current aluminium clad
shells work just fine. They just fail miserably when they fail. But if you
think someone will emerge that will make the old tri-metal type bearings
again... think again. I don't think that is going to happen, so we have to
live with what we got.
> The
> suppliers really should pull this junk from their shelves and use
> better stuff, but I'm sure it's too big a loss for them.
I won't disagree with you here, but I can also sympathize with a vendor
that has $xxxx or more worth of a certain part on the shelf that they are
stuck with. Afterall, how exactly do you stress test parts that are made
for other specs in our cars? It really is not as easy as you might
imagine, and frankly Moss, TRF and others probably don't have the _time_
to do the necessary testing, let alone tying up _gobs_ of cash.
If you don't believe me on this, talk to any racer about all the parts
that they blow up trying to squeeze power from motors or make suspensions
take loads that the initial engineers couldn't even concieve when the
parts were designed.
> Anyone who
> has checked out Nelson's articles about this on the Buckeye site will
> clearly see what the issue is and what the best option is.
The key here is that they know that this resource exists (see my first
paragraph) and that they then actually use the advice. I'll be honest,
I've driven TR6's in the order of 150k miles since 1970. I've had three
roadworthy TR6's in that time (I have two right now). I've done several
clutches on all of them. I've run Toyota bearings for the last 7 years
without problems... yes, the fingers on the clutch plate get worn, but _in
my case_ I take the motors out and/or swap trannies enough that I've never
had a failure. That's how _I_ deal with the situation. Clearly, this is
not how others deal.
> I am amazed
> (and disappointed) that TRF did not follow Dick Taylor's advice
> regarding the Gunst.
I would hardly be amazed at this. TRF has to make business decisions. I'll
bet that they figured that they'd have to sell the Gunst setup for a lot
more than $100 and they probably also figured that this price point would
be too high for the average enthusiast (the bulk of their customer base).
> Tim Holbrook
> 1971 TR6
I have a lot of strong opinions on this stuff and would gladly debate it
over a chilled beverage some time while watching race cars... Mosport,
anyone?
rml
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