| Author | Message | ||
     Oddsc |
I wanna start this by saying that I still think my Ulysses is the perfect bike, but she gave me lots of trouble this weekend. I had four days off, met up with my Dad and his Ultra-Classic, and had the perfect route planned from Toledo down the Blueridge Parkway and back. Then came the first kick in the pants. I was going to pass an oil change interval on the trip, so I decided to take care of it Friday night before we left. I take the drain plug out, and with it come half of the aluminum threads from the swing arm! Cross-threaded drain plug, thanks to some incompetent service tech who shouldn't even be trusted with a wash cloth around a bike! I took the bike in to the (as yet unnamed) dealer to do the 1000 mile service a few weeks prior. The dealer was even recommended to me on this board as one that was particularly Buell friendly. Anyway, that's the "bad" part, the worse is still to come. First though, anyone have any suggestions as to how I can actually get the dealer to take responsibility for their mistake. To complicate matters, I had the service done when I was on the road for work, 12 hours away from my home. Now for the "worse". Turns out the drain plug had enough threading left to make the trip anyway armed with a rubber emergency plug and 3 quarts of oil. So, on Saturday we hit the road bright and early and made it to a heavenly section of West Virginia highway 60 along the New River. Great road! Now, you're not going to believe what happend next. I was down-shifting into a gas station and all of a sudden POP POP POP POP! What the hell's going on? Sounded like the muffler fell off. I came to a stop, left it running, and took a quick look, muffler, OK, so I felt around a little and ZAP! Looked on the other side, and saw the front spark plug sticking out next to the air scoop!?!?!! I killed the engine and took the scoop off for a better look. STRIPPED SPARK PLUG THREADS! The spark plug was blown right out of the head! Looking closer, it seems that the plug was cross threaded from the factory, it was screwed about 3/4 of the way in and must have jammed there. Luckily, there was about 1/4 of the threads still OK at the bottom. My fist thought was that this was again the doing of the incompetent, unnamed dealer, but I don't think they did anything with the plugs at the 1000 mi service. Anyway, I got the plug screwed into the few remaining threads with a little loc-tite just for good measure. We found a hotel for the night, and rode 400 miles back today. I've never taken it so easy on the throttle, not even on break-in, but we made it back home. I still love my Uly! Now, lets hope Buell gives me a reason to love them too. I've heard that they're good about standing behind their product. It's clear that this is a factory defect, and a case for warrenty repair if there ever was one. So, a warning for anyone wanting to ride their Uly to the ends of the earth, better run your plugs in and out first! Fellow Badwebbers, wish me luck, looks like lots of phone time for me tomorrow! | ||
| Rubberdown |
Good Luck. | ||
| Davo |
Oddsc, I am sorry to hear about your bad to worse story. There was a thread recently dealing with the torque spec on the oil plug which is way too tight. The manual specifies 29-34 ft./lbs.!!! In my opinion 14 ft./lbs. is plenty tight for a plug with thread sealant http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/142838/192810.html?1146431122 As for the spark plug, there is no excuse for the fault. Please let us know how Buell treats you regarding this issue, It may depend on whether I keep my bike or not. I have changed my plugs several times. I followed the instruction manual with the exception of a reduced torque spec. The manual specifies 12-18 ft./lbs. I use the finger tight and then an additional 1/4 turn with a NEW plug. If I reuse the plug I only turn it in about 1/8 past finger tight due to the fact that the washer has already been compressed. I always start and finger tight all the way down to the washer contacting the head. Also, use anti-sieze on the threads. Once again, please keep us posted as to how you are treated with this issue. I met a perspective Uly buyer today and I want to pass this on to him asap. I have made numerous recommendations regarding this motorcycle and I do not want to continue to recommend it to others if your problem is not fixed to a pristine factory condition. (Message edited by davo on May 21, 2006) | ||
| Crusty |
Oddsc; I think that changing spark plugs is part of the initial service. I would call the dealership where you had the 1000 mile service done, and raise hell. Hey, Davo; when you tell your prospective Uly buyer about the one mistaken torque value in the Service Manual, and the one cross threaded spark plug;, make sure you also tell him about the thousands of XB owners who have had no problems at all with their bikes. I just turned 6,000 trouble free miles yesterday in the middle of a hellacious Thunderstorm. | ||
| Davo |
Crusty, I have told the people that are interested in the Uly that there are many satisfied owners as indicated by your statement. The issue above is more a statement about factory support. I realize that not everyone can fix their own bike. I am sympathetic to that and if I were one of them I most likely would be an X xb12x owner now. It would be unfair for me to be less than truthful to someone that is about to spend $13,000.00 on a adventure sport bike. I think it is a great bike, now lets see if the company shares that same attribute. | ||
| Bearly |
Sorry to hear about your woes. It will be great to hear about your resolution as I'm just about (maybe) to purchase (I can't believe I just said that!) a Uly somewhere. Maybe I'll just rebuild my old thumper? Good luck, I hope they give you new parts instead of heli coils! | ||
| 44mag |
FYI - My dealer removed my spark plugs for the 1000 mile service a few weeks ago. I bet it was the dealers doing, not the factory. | ||
| Oddsc |
So after lots of phone time today, things are looking pretty good. The dealer that did the service accepted responsibility and wants to resolve the issue. The dealer where I bought the bike has already set things in motion to fix the bike under warranty. So far, so good! | ||
| Davo |
Great news! | ||
| Bearly |
This IS great News. Get NEW parts! | ||
| Wolffone2000 |
Since reading this thread, I recently changed the oil in my ULY and found the dealer did not even install an o-ring on the drain plug during the 1k service that was completed. The dealer did install thread sealant, but the plug was not that tight and required only minor effort to remove-- same goes for the filter. Threads for the drain plug and swingarm looked good though. Just goes to show you that you need to do as much of your own maintenance as possible so there is some continuity in your repairs and you know what is going on with your machine--after all...it is your butt on the machine and not the techs. | ||
| Oddsc |
I just had a chance to take the bike in, but so far I've had great customer service, and I don't foresee any problems having everything fixed under warranty. I'll keep ya posted | ||
| Oddsc |
Just got the bike back today. Everything fixed, new head, new swing arm, no helicoils and I didn't have to pay a cent!!! Way to go Buell, thanks for standing behind your bikes! Thanks to my dealer too! All's well that ends well. |
