Losing my mind

[buggrin]

See my thread on dropping 2 cylinders. Apparently these old girls don't like just anybody in their knickers...... This is my second very expensive lesson. Feels sorta like a kick in the nuts don't it?

[DAVINCI]

$1900!!

You could get two spare runners for $1900. Get yourself some mechanical skills, my man, before those dealers eat you alive.

[neJeff]

$1900

$1900.00?? I literally rubbed my face with both hands and said "OMG" (long form)! Follow DAVINCI's advice please and save yourself some benjamin's...holy crap!

[cywelchjr]

Wow! I think I MIGHT have that much in mine if I count purchase price, all parts, gas oil AND insurance over the last almost 3 years! You could buy an almost new yamaha cruiser for just pennies more, and while not the monster these are, they are still some pretty good machines.

[TacomaJeepJeff]

Indeed

I forgot to include all the work. I also had the forks and charging system redone.

I will agree that this did get away from me some. And yes I could have bought 2 sh*ty running XS for this.

Also my skills are not great. I think it a bad idea to get myself killed when the wheel falls off at 70 just to save a few hundred. I also don't do brake work on the car my family rides in .... for the same reason.

My true regret is that I could have / should have bought Crazy Steve's bike for that price. Who knew?????

[cywelchjr]

Well, you know, the truth is, if you ended up with a good running bike, and your happy with it, then that's what really matters in the end. And in a lot of ways you are right, you still spent less than a brand new bike, and probably still have a bike that's actually better built than most of them still. It's just that those of us who do our own work kinda shudder a bit. I rather trust my own work on the brakes on the family car better than some dumb kid down at the local shop. I've had them do the work before and then checked it, and found very poor substandard work, and that was from the dealer. Then again my father started teaching me to work on cars when I was about 10 years old, and I wasn't allowed to drive till I could demonstrate the ability to do all the normal maintenance on the car first. Then my dad got me my first car, and it didn't run. He paid for the parts and I had to do all the work and he paid for the first 6 months insurance and reg, after that is was 100% my responsibility (everything, parts, maint the whole thing).

But I know that not everybody is from there, so the same thing doesn't work for everybody.

[latexeses]

When I was a kid I always thought "I can't wait until I can afford to pay to have this work done to my car, Scout, motorcycle "etc...

I finally got to that point and cars were more complicated to troubleshoot. Sometime it makes sense to go to the guy's with the skins on the wall.
If I didn't like the sound of the price of some of the work being done, it wound up back in my driveway.

Now, for financial reasons, I am back to working on my vehicles. Physically it can't be major work but at least I know what is being done is not costing the price of a used car. It doesn't get done as fast (ask my wife) but it seems to work out. As for for me, "What's time to a hog?"

The latest shop hold up was $600.00 to replace a radiator in a 97 Toyota. The radiator cost me 180 bucks. Another fifteen bucks for fluids, including beer, and another hosing will have been turned away.

It gets done as fast as a middle aged fat guy with a bad back and shot knees is willing to work. SWMBO is satisfied with that and that makes it just fine by me..

[WMarshy]

I took it back with the aforementioned WTF?

They said the replaced fuel lines were too small and I took it out for a 10 mile, one way ride. http://www.xs11.com/forum/images/smilies/mad.gif

Repeated the step "I took it back with the aforementioned WTF" and added an angry face. I also took she who must be obeyed along as her angry face is much better than mine. She told them last chance or we would require a refund for all the work done. 3 roadside drops after big money repair is 3 too many I think.

Turns out, there is a vacuum cutoff in the octopus that was leaking. Its the single vacuum switch that sits between the vacuum and the vacuum side of the petcocks. After 10 minutes it would turn off the vacuum to the petcocks and riding would cease.

Cost for the work was $1900. I like old things and the XSs a lot, cheaper (way) than an HD. There is a shop in Tacoma that works on these for $79 /hour. I think they are slow , but the work seems OK. I'm not over pissed about the vacuum leak, I can see where that was a tad hard to troubleshoot.

Seems to me there is a healthy leason to be learned here... unfortunately it was at your expense, literally. If the fuel lines are degraded or thought to need replacing, all the other lines should be replaced as well! Someone with basic XS fuel sys knowledge (ie the wed site) would have got you the same outcome for WAY less money! AND you would be a little bit smarter about your bike and might be able to do a road side troubleshoot/fix if necessary in the future. All the work you listed would could have been done in a weekend or two...

I had simillar mistake but it didnt not cost me that much... I wouldnt call is a mistake but a learning lesson... Had my carbs cleaned by a shop, who did a great job, then one week later my bike got knocked over and had an issue with my floats/petcocks sealing. Long story short, flooded oil with gas enough for it to get pushed into my airbox via crank case vent and I was taking the carbs apart to clean them again after spending $200 a week earlier! Guess what, I found out how are easy they are to work on. Ever since then I do my own work.

[dpotter58]

I forgot to include all the work. I also had the forks and charging system redone.

I will agree that this did get away from me some. And yes I could have bought 2 sh*ty running XS for this.

Also my skills are not great. I think it a bad idea to get myself killed when the wheel falls off at 70 just to save a few hundred. I also don't do brake work on the car my family rides in .... for the same reason.

My true regret is that I could have / should have bought Crazy Steve's bike for that price. Who knew?????

I feel ya. I work on the bike but not my Passat. Probably piece of mind (what little I have left) is worth paying if unsure.

[trdriver71]

I have my boys help me when I work on my xs as this is teaching them some basic mechanical skill so that in the future they can avoid paying someone lots of money to fix there stuff and I also like the time I get to spend with them.

Dpotter58 I am also working on a passat what year is yours?