As some may remember I have been Spitless for about a year due to a broken
engine. Work finally calmed down enough for me to do something about it so
I entrusted our own Ted Schumacher (and Hart's Machine Shop in OH) with the
rebuild. Come to find out, the problem was a broken crankshaft! This is a
problem, as small-bearing 1296 cranks don't generally break, so are very
hard to find. But, Victoria British had one in stock, a regrind with the
bearings etc. included. So it was duly bought and shipped to the machine
shop. Unfortunately, they discovered that it was not re-ground correctly,
and was not usable in it's present state. All of the journals were tapered
and oversized.
I called VB to see what could be done, fully expecting a major hassle. I
could not have been more pleased - they are refunding to me the cost of
having Hart's Machine Shop re-grind the crank, and they are refunding the
cost of the next size up bearings that I will need! Absolutely no hassle!
They even took my word for the problem, no proof needed.
So while I am not pleased about the quality of the purchased part, they
went out of their way to make it right! I have had mixed results buying
from them over the years, but in this case they were the only vendor who
had a crankshaft and I had no choice. At least I now know they will stand
behind their products.
Kevin Rhodes
Westbrook, Maine
Freddy the soon to be re-engined Spitfire
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