Oooohhh... now I understand ...

Well, too late to complain with those guys, they claimed "if it was OK to ride her all the way to Rome, it was OK" and wouldn't budge.

So I'll have to take her to a local mechanic, Ducati possibly...

mpescatori wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:12:



Man, that is a real pain that the dealership is so far from where you live.   This would be easier to try to resolve if they were in your town, but ........
When a shop does work for you that involves going into the engine, then you should certainly expect that they will put it back together correctly.  In your case, it was the ride back home that revealed there was a leakage problem.  Just because it did not show up withing 5 minutes does not relieve the shop of its responsibilities.  I could understand their argument of not wanting to cover it if you rode the bike for a couple of months and several thousand miles before telling them that it was leaking, but this was the initial ride from the shop to your home.

Do you have any legal recourse that you can use to "encourage" them to fix their mistake.
Did you speak to the OWNER of the business and not just a worker/manager ?  If not, then call the owner directly and explain your dissatisfaction with the service work you received and the bad attitude of the people you talked with.

I have on a couple of occasions, where I had no actual legal power to force the issue, promised to take out an ad in the largest area newspaper telling everyone how terrible the customer service was at this particular business.  That usually gets their attention.

Well, after spending the best part of a full hour just to dig up this old thread, here's what I found out:

The mechanic used red paste "fix-a-gasket" to seal the right side engine cover (when hereplaced the cam chain) but he left a small opening, and when hot, oil fumes will spew out... which account for dirty boots, trousers and a mucky engine...



I will see if I can order a proper gasket from the stealership, else, I may need "a little help from my friends"  

Alright, then, I will inquire with the stealership and verify the availability and price for 2 two) seta of engine gastekts:
head, right side engine cover and (who knoews what else?) valve (tappets) covers (two each)

If anybody on the US side could sheck and see if there is a "complete engine gasket set" , we'd be very grateful (and pay very promptly)  

From my local stealership, a complete gasket set for the Savage/S40 runs nearly 90 US dollars.

no head, ream jobs only.

The fact that they did not order the gaskets ahead of time and resorted to red pastey stuff tells me that they are not very professional.

And I understand your need to have the gaskets to do the job right, and if you order a set, you'll have everything you need.  But here's a warning, the plug is not included in the set.  And unless you're going to tear it down completely, you'll never use all of the gaskets.

Instead, I'd order the gaskets you need.  and order at least 2 changes of some.  some are so usefull elsewhere too, like the little rubber cover washers, used ones are great for keeping hardware on the covers.

Clutch cover, altenator cover, that figure 8 o-ring for the head cover, the head plug, sealed washers, oil filter cover, valve inspection cover.  These are the ones I'd have on stand by.  The O-rings you should be able to get locally and can be made from o-ring stock.  But having them does make it easy just to change when neccessary.

Good luck my friend.  

The local shop I use, not the Suzuki shopl, has a computer operated machine that cuts gaskets. He has a cd with bikes & their gaskets & the thing just cuts the gaskets out. It was cheap enough & no freight. You might call around.