Have a Harley Jolly Christmas
December 9th, 2008Finally, a Tool I Refuse to Buy
Here’s another reason to beat everyone who works for Harley-Davidson.
It looks like I have a bad diaphragm on my fuel supply valve. The solution? Remove the vacuum hose, remove the fuel hose, take off the valve, and open it up. BUT Harley-Davidson uses stupid spring band hose clamps, and you have to have special hose clamp pliers to remove them. This is brilliance at its best. You save maybe five cents on the cost of the bike by using the crappy clamp, but you lose ten dollars when you buy the special hose clamp pliers to take the clamp off.
I can’t think of one good reason not to replace it with a nice AWAB worm drive hose clamp. That’s what I did to the carb, and it worked out fine. It will save me the price of those stupid pliers.
I love the little touches manufacturers put on their products, to quadruple the time and money it costs to fix them.
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Harley-Davidson used to make a replacement diaphragm that cost around seven bucks. Then they decided that was too cheap. Now you have to buy the whole valve, for almost thirty bucks. Supposedly, you can buy the diaphragm by itself, but they make you pay the cost of a valve.
No wonder people hate Harley-Davidson.
I’m getting a Golan aftermarket petcock. I’m tempted to eliminate the diaphragm and replace it with a gasket, but I’d have to remember to turn the petcock off whenever the bike wasn’t running.
This is how Harleys are. The stock parts fail, and when you try to replace them, they screw you so badly you pretty much have to buy aftermarket if you want to retain your self-respect.
December 9th, 2008 at 9:19 PM
All manufacturers do that crap. Special time clock dryer $140. No. CVS hair dryer $7. Yes. Do what works and tell HD to take a long walk off a short pier.
December 9th, 2008 at 11:05 PM
I got real irritated as a BMW motorcycle dealer when the manufacturer stopped selling rebuild kits for brake components. Now instead of a 35 dollar rebuild kit you had to replace a 350 dollar complete master cylinder assemby. It only gets worse when it comes to their computers… I’m glad I’m not in that business any more.
December 10th, 2008 at 7:04 AM
LOL just to rub it in.
My little 600cc yamaha, cost 6000$ new in 07, has 100hp, outstanding brakes, fuel injection, never one problem in 24,000 miles of operation, and looks good making 47 mpg. It is also powered by my own sense of self satisfaction.
Sorry your Harley is a pain, sure would like to see pictures of teh Guzzi though. They have something I just like.
I like the little spring clamps though.
These make them a non issue, and they really do work well.
December 10th, 2008 at 10:11 AM
Reminds me of the military procurement system, where a nut costs 3 cents but the only wrench in the solar system that will fit the damn thing sets you back a couple grand. Maybe Harley supplies the military. That would explain a few things, like why a B-52 smokes like a pig.
December 10th, 2008 at 11:37 AM
Design for Manufacturability. It is the cheif culprit in DIY complaints.
December 10th, 2008 at 5:02 PM
“That’s what I did to the carb, and it worked out fine. It will save me the price of those stupid pliers.”
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Why not use Channel Locks like everyone else? 🙂
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I agree with Greg Z on the Design for Manufacturability…
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The manufacturers do it because it saves them like 10-seconds of assembly time (spring-clamp versus worm-screw clamp), and since they pay the highest hourly union wage in the world, that probably translates to multiple dollars overall.
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Still, the PITA factor follows on from the efficiency experts designing for ease of manufacture (which started with the Japenese), not for ease of maintainence. This is why I’ve had to take an engine mount off a V6 Engine (supporting the engine with an engine crane), just to replace a water pump (’92 Dodge Shadow).
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You couldn’t imagine what I had to go through to replace the Thermostat on my ’99 Dodge Truck (okay maybe you could…if your Harley was water cooled and had the Thermostat buried under EVERY engine accesory you could think off).
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For my next truck, I’m seriously thinking of finding a pre-emissions Crew-Cab Truck from an arid state (for rust reasons) and rebuilding the drive train. At least doing that, I could stand next to the engine while I work on it.
And NO SPRING CLAMPS…NEVER SPRING CLAMPS.