Jan,
It’s nice to see you here on the forum. I’m sure there are many folks interested in your engines who will appreciate seeing you here and being able to share information.
I’m sorry about your troubles with the recession. Many people took a big hit. It was sad.
Despite my persistence with these issues, I was absolutely sincere when I said that I hope the Viking package proves to be a good alternative for the sport aviation market. It is such a beautiful package.
Here, you seem like a well-intentioned, down to earth person with your customer’s best interest in mind. Perhaps I’ll come over with the machine on Saturday, meet you and see your operation.
We’ll probably never agree on some of these points, but at least you are here to participate first hand.
Yes, he lives way up north and has only been able to get down here the two times you speak of. This is part of why it hurts so much. He incurs significant expense to come use his machine and really hasn’t been able to enjoy it.
We’ve seen at least two (maybe three) Viking equipped Dominators come through Wauchula. The one that went to the islands was really working well. You could hit the starter and it would purr. But I believe it had a different computer on it. This one, that we’re concerned about, acts completely different. It may have been right when it left your shop, but when it got to Wauchula it had problems.
It was very nice of you to work with the customer to correct the valve problem. You said you also corrected some other things that day. What else did you correct?
Even though I was present for most of the attempts to run the engine and diagnose problems, I triple checked and again was told the valve cover was never off the engine. I certainly never saw it off. I did see that there was oil leaking from the valve cover. Was there a crankcase ventilation system in the original set up of this machine?
Ernie did not answer my question. Perhaps you can. On the machine Ernie is currently working on, the gearbox is now lubricated directly from the engine crankcase. Was this done because of something related to the installation of the turbo, or is this how all future gearboxes will be lubricated?
In response to “If the machine need further work, we can do that. “ from post #34; The whole point of this thread is that the brand new machine should not have needed extra work. Thank god the machine is still here in Florida. Can you imagine the situation he would be in if he had already taken his machine home?
In response to “Here you go again? What is this mentality about free upgrades?”; I thought I covered that in item #1 of my post #26. Nobody is asking for free upgrades here. We simply want the man’s machine to run right, be safe and free of defects. These things that need fixing are not upgrades. They are necessities to make the machine run correctly and safely. It’s so simple. If the old flywheels have integrity and are safe, then why are you replacing them with a different type? This is not an upgrade. It's called a “recall”.
I really hope you can resolve these issues once and for all.
I’m really looking forward to posting something positive after the machine comes back from this third trip. If it’s right this time, I’ll be the first person in line to express my thanks.