Heath
02-08-2002, 03:12 PM
G'day all,
As you may or may not know, we've had some trouble lately with our 1995 70hp Yamaha outboard. Up until 2 weeks ago, if you had asked me what I thought of Yamaha, I would have told you that they are the best donks that ever touched the earth. Well my opinion has changed somewhat to a good degree below that.
To give you a bit of background, our donk was purchased with the new boat back in 1995. In the years it spent in Sydney the boat was used about once a month up until 1999. Once up here on the Goldcoast the boat is on average twice a week. It currently has 440 hours on the clock however the engine hours are roughly 75 - 100 hours below that due to the ignition key being left on for 4 days or so :-[ #:-[, The motor up until a fortnight ago has performed faultlessly. 2 weekends ago on starting it up it sounded a bit noisy, by the end of the trip it was REAL noisy. Got my resident outboard specialist to have a look ( Gotta give my mate Garry a wrap #;)) & it was diagnosed as a very sick puppy. The engine was pulled down the next day. Upon cracking open the crank case we were presented with the picture below. I don't know if you can see it, but there is metal all through the 2 main center bearings.
www.users.bigpond.com/the_nest/centerbearings.jpg
www.users.bigpond.com/the_nest/stuffed_bearings.jpg
This was dissapointing alone, but the following events that followed, I hope will enlighten you fello boaties.
Garry's first observation was that the crank was a pressed crank. This immediatly meant that the work would have to be done by a specialist who could pull the crank apart & then press it back together. On the Monday following the breakdown I started tracking parts down. Now to me it makes sence that you go to the nearest dealer to source them which I did, after all you ASSUME that dealer or dealers as the case turned out, SHOULD know about the product that they sell & maintain.
My first stop was at ***** ****** Marine in Brisbane. Spoke to a fellow there *B* who took all the particulars down. A parts list was compiled & then he dropped the bomb shell.... You can't get the bearings alone, you have to get a whole crank. "WHAT"!!! was my reply. I was informed that $1300.00 will see me with a new crank. I felt crook to be honest, *B* suggested I might find a second hand crank at a outboard wreckers. So in hope I called the 2 in Brisbane with no luck. ( Feeling really crook now :'() So I decided to ring the big smoke ( Sydney ) and talk to some wreckers down there. This is where my luck changed. I called NEPTUNE MARINE 0295250990 who are at 40 Bay Rd Taren Pt. I spoke to a fellow there called Nick. After I explained my situation he assured me that you can get the bearings as he had replaced no less than 3 sets on Yamaha cranks in the last 6 months. With this info I called *B* back at ****** ****** marine. After explaining that the bearings can be sourced, I was hit with the statement " Good on him" now I don't know how to take that or exactly which context it was ment in. Anyway, *B* said he will check with Yamaha. He called back later in the day & I was advised yes they were available & they were........$65.00 ea. YES $130.00 V $1300.00. So I went down to order them off *B*. I was then advised that they could only get one & not the other. This really started to give me the shits by this stage >:(, how the hell could this be right?? The different between the 2 bearings being one has a circlip on it to keep it in position. As pleaded with *B* to ring Yamaha while I was there so I could talk to them. Nup, as he turned his back on me the only comment was "You're up for a new crank or you'll have to get the bearing made" He was backed up by a girl there who handles the spare parts as well. Well it looked like I had outstayed my welcome there so I rang another 2 dealers & was told the same thing "New Crank". So I called Neptune Marine & talked to Nick & a of today I have the bearings in my hot little hand. I took my crank to a place in Brisbane called Serco who could not have been more helpfull in telling me what I need & where to get them at the right price & they work with pressed cranks. You see, I am up for new conrods, pistons, top & bottom bearings. I was put onto a place called Victory Parts 0754853433 on the sunshine coast. Initially I was after the conrod kits & was going to buy everything else from Yamaha eg Pistons, rings, powerhead gasket set, waterpump etc etc.WELL he advised he can supply it all. I can tell you he has saved us around $400.00 in parts compared with Yamaha.
So at the moment, my crank is in bits at Serco Brisbane awaiting all the parts to arrive there & the donk is in bits in my oldmans garage.
I know this long winded.
The point I am trying to make is, did the dealer or dealers really didn't know that the bearings could be sourced?? I have my suspicians, >:(
For $130.00 in parts that couldn't be sourced by a dealer to $1300.00 for a crank!!!!
I can tell you the bearings arrived in boxes named Yamaha Genuine parts :o :o :o >:(
The whole exercise is going to cost us about $1000.00, but if I let a dealer lead me down the golden path it would have ended up 2.5 times that :o :o :o
My next donk if I can help it will NOT be a Yamaha. No matter how big they claim their support network, it does us, the consumer no good, if the support network doesn't know their own product. #>:( >:( >:(
As you may or may not know, we've had some trouble lately with our 1995 70hp Yamaha outboard. Up until 2 weeks ago, if you had asked me what I thought of Yamaha, I would have told you that they are the best donks that ever touched the earth. Well my opinion has changed somewhat to a good degree below that.
To give you a bit of background, our donk was purchased with the new boat back in 1995. In the years it spent in Sydney the boat was used about once a month up until 1999. Once up here on the Goldcoast the boat is on average twice a week. It currently has 440 hours on the clock however the engine hours are roughly 75 - 100 hours below that due to the ignition key being left on for 4 days or so :-[ #:-[, The motor up until a fortnight ago has performed faultlessly. 2 weekends ago on starting it up it sounded a bit noisy, by the end of the trip it was REAL noisy. Got my resident outboard specialist to have a look ( Gotta give my mate Garry a wrap #;)) & it was diagnosed as a very sick puppy. The engine was pulled down the next day. Upon cracking open the crank case we were presented with the picture below. I don't know if you can see it, but there is metal all through the 2 main center bearings.
www.users.bigpond.com/the_nest/centerbearings.jpg
www.users.bigpond.com/the_nest/stuffed_bearings.jpg
This was dissapointing alone, but the following events that followed, I hope will enlighten you fello boaties.
Garry's first observation was that the crank was a pressed crank. This immediatly meant that the work would have to be done by a specialist who could pull the crank apart & then press it back together. On the Monday following the breakdown I started tracking parts down. Now to me it makes sence that you go to the nearest dealer to source them which I did, after all you ASSUME that dealer or dealers as the case turned out, SHOULD know about the product that they sell & maintain.
My first stop was at ***** ****** Marine in Brisbane. Spoke to a fellow there *B* who took all the particulars down. A parts list was compiled & then he dropped the bomb shell.... You can't get the bearings alone, you have to get a whole crank. "WHAT"!!! was my reply. I was informed that $1300.00 will see me with a new crank. I felt crook to be honest, *B* suggested I might find a second hand crank at a outboard wreckers. So in hope I called the 2 in Brisbane with no luck. ( Feeling really crook now :'() So I decided to ring the big smoke ( Sydney ) and talk to some wreckers down there. This is where my luck changed. I called NEPTUNE MARINE 0295250990 who are at 40 Bay Rd Taren Pt. I spoke to a fellow there called Nick. After I explained my situation he assured me that you can get the bearings as he had replaced no less than 3 sets on Yamaha cranks in the last 6 months. With this info I called *B* back at ****** ****** marine. After explaining that the bearings can be sourced, I was hit with the statement " Good on him" now I don't know how to take that or exactly which context it was ment in. Anyway, *B* said he will check with Yamaha. He called back later in the day & I was advised yes they were available & they were........$65.00 ea. YES $130.00 V $1300.00. So I went down to order them off *B*. I was then advised that they could only get one & not the other. This really started to give me the shits by this stage >:(, how the hell could this be right?? The different between the 2 bearings being one has a circlip on it to keep it in position. As pleaded with *B* to ring Yamaha while I was there so I could talk to them. Nup, as he turned his back on me the only comment was "You're up for a new crank or you'll have to get the bearing made" He was backed up by a girl there who handles the spare parts as well. Well it looked like I had outstayed my welcome there so I rang another 2 dealers & was told the same thing "New Crank". So I called Neptune Marine & talked to Nick & a of today I have the bearings in my hot little hand. I took my crank to a place in Brisbane called Serco who could not have been more helpfull in telling me what I need & where to get them at the right price & they work with pressed cranks. You see, I am up for new conrods, pistons, top & bottom bearings. I was put onto a place called Victory Parts 0754853433 on the sunshine coast. Initially I was after the conrod kits & was going to buy everything else from Yamaha eg Pistons, rings, powerhead gasket set, waterpump etc etc.WELL he advised he can supply it all. I can tell you he has saved us around $400.00 in parts compared with Yamaha.
So at the moment, my crank is in bits at Serco Brisbane awaiting all the parts to arrive there & the donk is in bits in my oldmans garage.
I know this long winded.
The point I am trying to make is, did the dealer or dealers really didn't know that the bearings could be sourced?? I have my suspicians, >:(
For $130.00 in parts that couldn't be sourced by a dealer to $1300.00 for a crank!!!!
I can tell you the bearings arrived in boxes named Yamaha Genuine parts :o :o :o >:(
The whole exercise is going to cost us about $1000.00, but if I let a dealer lead me down the golden path it would have ended up 2.5 times that :o :o :o
My next donk if I can help it will NOT be a Yamaha. No matter how big they claim their support network, it does us, the consumer no good, if the support network doesn't know their own product. #>:( >:( >:(