Harley-Davidson Customer Care, 3700 W. Juneau Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53208 To whom it may concern, I am writing to express my extreme dissatisfaction with the quality of material and in particular workmanship I have had to deal with over the past eight months from Republic Harley Davidson in Stafford Texas. In November of 2013 I decided to use your remanufactured engine program to replace the original engine in my 1987 FXRS-SP. I made this decision based on the assumption that even though there are several companies offering 80” Evolution crate motors I would be better off dealing with the factory in regards to quality and warranty issues if any arose. The motorcycle was delivered to Republic Harley Davidson on November the 30th 2013 for what I was told would be a three week turn around. On January the 18th 2014 the motorcycle was ready for pickup, that’s 7 weeks or 2.3 times as long as I was told it would take. Given the fact that this was done over the Holidays I expected it to take longer than three weeks, but not twice as long. The first issue that occurred was a primary oil leak that occurred on 3/13/2014 regards Republic work order # 86854.At this time the motorcycle had 1655 miles on the engine and the work. The inner primary oil seal was leaking, the bike was returned to me on 3/20/2014 one week later. Given that it’s an older motorcycle and the necessary parts are not stock items I wasn’t that upset about the time involved but I was concerned that a factory certified service technician couldn’t properly install an oil seal. The second issue that occurred was that the engine began to consume oil and smoke on start up on 5/10/2014 reference Republic work order #88469. At this time the engine had approximately 6000 miles on it. I was never told what the problem was but the remanufactured engine was replaced, according to the work order it was offered back on 5/29/2014, not a bad turnaround and they honored the warranty. They also broke the bracket on my oil cooler by over tightening the clamps, left oil lines and the wiring harness hanging loose, didn’t tighten the battery terminals down, gouged the paint on the frame and the oil tank and generally did a very unprofessional job of reinstalling the engine. The third and most critical in my opinion issue occurred on 7/14/2014. I was on my way to work in Houston rush hour traffic and the clutch hub came off the transmission shaft when I disengaged the clutch, fortunately sitting at a light at an idle. I rented a trailer (it was a Monday and the shop was closed) for $45.00 and took the bike back home, I missed 4 hours of work approximately $125.00. At this point I didn’t know what had happened with the clutch and was thinking it was a defect in the release mechanism. I took the primary cover off and that’s when I noticed that the clutch assembly was no longer attached to the transmission main shaft as it should be. The clutch hub nut was still on the transmission shaft and the threads were undamaged, it was also hand tight. When the hub came off it sheared off the upper 2/3s of the clutch key and ran it thru the primary damaging the compensating sprocket cover and the primary cover along with the clutch hub. Republic picked the bike up on 7/15/2014 reference Republic work order #90276 and once again honored the warranty and did the repair work. The bike was returned on 7/26/2014. This leads into the last and in my mind the final issue. I rode the motorcycle 26 miles home from the Dealership and it would not restart. The battery was down to 11 volt charge. I immediately contacted republic and they came and picked up the motorcycle once again on 7/292014. I picked the bike up yesterday 8/6/2014, the stator and voltage regulator had been replaced. The explanation I was given for their failure was that the stator had been bad from the beginning, I replaced it at the same time the engine was originally replaced in January. I find it hard to believe that something would work perfectly for 8 months and 7500 miles and then mysteriously fail in conjunction with the clutch hub issue. Given the damage to the inner primary when the clutch hub came off it’s my opinion that it was damaged at this time. I was told by the Service manager that problems like this are common on the new Harley Davidsons as well, that’s a real confidence builder. In summary the issue with the first remanufactured motor was a matter of the luck of the draw, it was a bad engine from the beginning and in no way can I hold the dealership responsible for that. That issue has to do with the Harley Davidson Motor Company itself. The second issue with the leaking primary seal could have been a defective seal but I am more inclined to believe it was improperly installed and that lead to its premature failure. The issue with the clutch hub coming off is the most serious problem, if this had occurred at highway speed it could have caused serious injury or death, and that is a direct result of the work performed at the Dealership. The issues with the charging system should have never occurred that’s something that should have been checked after the clutch hub failure given the amount of damage done to the inner primary. The damage to the oil cooler the scratches on the frame and oil tank are merely a reflection of shoddy and unprofessional workmanship and that is a direct reflection on the dealership as well, I have ridden Harley Davidson Motorcycles since 1975, worked as a professional motorcycle mechanic and have ridden FXRs for over twenty years. The only reason I allowed the dealership to install the engine in the first place was because I was told that in order to get the warranty they had to install it, given the fact that it failed I’m glad they did. The reason I had this work done was so I could have a dependable motorcycle to ride this past year. I had planned on riding to Washington D.C. for rolling thunder in May, the bike was in the shop getting its second motor at that time. I am a Club Officer in the Viet Nam Vets Legacy Vets Motorcycle Club. Because of the multiple failures and issues with the motorcycle I was unable to properly fulfill my responsibilities that require me to ride as such. No offer was ever made of letting me use a loaner motorcycle and I did ask. I am planning or I should say I was planning on buying a new Road King this coming February. Given Republic Harley Davidsons service department’s performance and the comments made by the service manager regarding failures on the new Motorcycles I’m having serious second thoughts about that decision at this time. I would appreciate a reply to this letter and I feel that I am at least entitled to a refund of the expenses and lost wages incurred because of the clutch hub failure. In all honesty I wish I had just rebuilt the original engine myself, I would have done a better job. Regards Charles Cork
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 16:24:15 +0000
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