Hi Fellas,

I'd appreciate the benefit of your experience. A mechanic replaced the universals in my 86 Nissan 4WD. When I picked up the vehicle it had a bad vibration in the tail shaft. I figured he had reassembled the shaft out of phase, so I took the vehicle back the next day. He put it up on the hoist and showed me the punch marks on the shaft, so I figured there must be some other problem.

The owner had a look, banged here and there and could not identify the cause. As a temporary measure, he did a rough balance with a hose clamp and that fixed 90% of the vibration. A week later the hose clamp was removed and the rear section of the shaft was balanced. This did not fix the vibration. I paid $250.

Next, the owner replaced the centre bearing. This had no effect. I paid $170.

I took the vehicle back to them and their intention was to have the front section of the shaft balanced. I wasn't there, so I don't know what was said, but the specialist must have advised against a balance. They did not balance the front section. Instead, they rotated the front section 180 degrees and reassembled the shaft. This fixed the problem!!! They did not charge for this work.

Part of the story I didn't tell you earlier is that when I picked up the vehicle (on the day the new universals were fitted) I had to wait while the mechanic test drove the vehicle, and a further 15 minutes after he returned. He MUST have detected the vibration. I think he had forgotten to punch the shaft, reassembled out of phase, and covered his error by punching the sections during the 15 minute period.

I believe the owner is a fairly honest man and I have been taking my cars to him for several years. I think he was genuinely bewildered about what was causing the vibration, and was doing his best to find the cause. He would not have thought the shaft was reassembled out of phase because there were new punch marks on the shaft, and I would expect he trusts his staff.

I want my $420 back. Before I make all sorts of threats to the owner is there anything I should know?

Thanks,

David

Hi Dave,

I take your point. I wasn't going to jump down his neck and start kicking. I like the owner. I have faith in him, that is why I took the vehicle back to him even though my basic knowledge told me the shaft was out of phase.

But if my suspi

Thank Dave.

By the way, what does IMHO mean?

David

In my recent experience being reasonable, then jumping up and down, then threatening all do little good if the people you are dealing with don't value their reputation, or give a stuff in general.
I recently got married (in december).
Firstly it was a f

Thanks David. We can laugh about it now, but at the time it was terrible. From what you have described the Proprieter will probably come to the party. But if he doesn't make sure you tell friends and collegues about it, but be factual and fair if you ment

Jus reading through this topic quickly (I may have missed reading what I am about to say).

If the mechanic stuffed up & re assembled the tailshaft out of phase THEN centre punched alignment marks onto it & afterwards re assembled the shaft corre