starter / generator rebuild

[Calebintn 1]

I carried my starter/gen to a place about a month ago to be rebuilt. They told me they would see if they could fix it & worst case a new one would be around $150.00. After a month with no call from them I called to see where my part was, they said its finished total is $175.00 +tax.

Is this in line w/ what you should pay for a rebuild?

[Pollack Pete 2,273]

I'mconfused......If a new one was 150 dollars,why did you have your's rebuilt for 175?????I went to school a real long time ago,but the new one looks like a savings of 25 bucks.

[wallfish 15,919]

I guess that's their polite way of saying "F you, buy a new one. We want to keep the old one to resell and we never want your business again!"

[Duff 206]

I have to agree with John - they took you to the cleaners. A reputable outfit would have either offered to tear into it and give you a realistic estimate *BEFORE* rebuilding it, or at least charged you a pre-negotiated flat fee to open it up and evaluate it before doing any more work on it. Sorry you got hosed. At one time or another I think something similar may have happened to many of us, so don't beat yourself up over it.

On the bright side, you at least have an original starter/gen for your tractor!

Duff :hide:

[qd-16 14]

I had one repaired about 5-6 yrs. ago.....cost $27.50

[Butch 194]

Something is wrong here that's for sure. Can you really buy a new one for $150? If this is anything like an electric motor rebuild I can see it being over $100.

[stevasaurus 22,230]

Does sound high, but when you take into account $95 an hour labor plus parts, depending on what you had wrong...may be in line. The other guys are right...may not have had to have every thing replaced, but if they did that and you have a new one rebuilt, may be better then picking one up on e-bay that you don't know what you are buying. My 2 cents...and I can see them spending an hour on it. Trying to put up videos of rebuilding these things ourselves, saving some bucks. You may need to search the threads a little more and save...then you can buy the parts yourself and fix it...not that hard. To be sure...get the old parts and a parts list of what they did...you may find that...since they did the labor...you did not do to bad. There is always 2 ways of looking at things. :WRS:

[bigd 0]

any reputable company would have told you rebuilding was going to cost more than a new before they did it.then you had to call to find out if it was done?i'd look for another shop.

[puddlejumper 67]

Labor cost,shop time, and lord oh lord travel time for in the field mechanics is a killer. The last one I heard about being rebuilt was a 100$ but thats been awhile. Its like everything else. The pay for the guy actually doing the work has not changed much. But the guy above him supplying the shop and overhead Just keeps raising the prices. And as bad as I hate to say it. They for the most part are just passing along their expenses. Buy fuel and Insurance for a fleet of excavating equipment and dump trucks. I know they are making money but you bid a job at todays prices and dont start it for 6 months the change in fuel cost alone is a wagon wheel.

[TT-(Moderator) 1,127]

It's very hard to call it since no one has actually mentioned what all was replaced.

Bearings and brushes are relatively inexpensive, but throw in a new armature and fields and $100 in parts gets passed in hurry.

Most reputable shops won't do a half-assed job either - since one bad job can ruin their entire business.

I don't know of anyone who can look at the outside of a S/G unit and tell everything that's wrong with it........ and I'd much rather spend a little extra money to have quality parts installed in my original case vs. spending $125 - $150 for something "new" that's full of sub-standard (japataiwanese) parts.

[stevasaurus 22,230]

That is exactly what I was trying to say TT. Get the replaced parts and we can maybe see if you got your money's worth. :hide:

[hodge 6]

So, the consensus is that you may be getting your money's worth. That is one side of the coin. The other side is professionalism- I would think twice about using this particular shop again. It is inexcusible and unprofessional to not give you a price estimate once it was opened up, so that you can decide what to do- it's your money, your decision. It was also unprofessional to not call you with an update, or to let you know it was done- that says that you are of little importance to them. The fact that you owed them $175 and they didn't call you says, to me, that they are too busy or too disorganized. Either way, customer service is just as important as mechanical ability. I would chalk it up to experience, be thankful that you have (hopefully) a good-as-new starter/generator, and do things different the next time.

[Calebintn 1]

They told me all of the parts are new inside so I am glad that I still have the original on the tractor. I guess I was more upset with the customer service than anything, I know in my business people go to pieces if you dont keep them in the loop. Oh well I am back up and running this sure beats a pull rope.