Rebuilt Carburetor fot N95598

[barnstmr]

I've been hanging on to this rebuilt carburetor since 2008. Old carburetor dripping finally got too old to keep dealing with it. My good friend L2Gary did the rebuild job and did an outstanding job. Started on 2nd pull... Idle mixture needed no adjustment... idle speed needed only a minor tweak. Thanks Gary... great job.

[barnstmr]

Re: Rebuilt Accessories for N95598

Magnetos and Harness

You may remember my story about having to make a precautionary landing due to a failed magneto and so N95598 did not make it to the fly-in we had here in Texas back at the end of March. Well I went to work at getting my ignition system replaced on a budget. I am very pleased with the outcome, but in the process I found there are some good and some not-so-good folks out there in the business of re-building accessories. Bottom line is I have 2 rebuilt Scintilla SF4LN-8 mags with shielded harness for $ 598.00

I feel the need to share my experience in dealing with overhaul shops. I got three recommendations from friends. One of them was not able to support the Scintilla at the current time. Bottom line - here is one success story and another not-so-happy buying experience.

So I called Ted Van Landingham at Velocity Schoppe in Oklahoma... see photo business card. Ted was the accessory shop foreman at El Reno Aircraft for 40 years before they closed the Accessory part of that business. Ted now has all the equipment and parts supply needed to support Scintilla mags. He also does work on Carburetors. He quoted me $150.00 each for the labor to rebuild my mags plus parts. He said... if he needed parts, he would let me know before proceeding and that I could supply another core to perhaps minimize the cost of parts. Since his shop is not a repair station, he would supply only a logbook entry as a rebuild by an A&P mechanic.

I also called Al Marcucci at Savage Magneto in Calif. To my surprize he quoted $695.00 per magneto for the overhaul. For this I expected a Repair Station tag with 8130-3. But he said, "No - we let our repair station go and so we supply only a logbook entry as a rebuild by an A&P mechanic". Surprized, I told him about the other shop's quote and he bragged that he has been doing these for over 50 years and then proceeded to bad-mouth the other guy who he said he never met. This to me was quite unprofessional. I decided not to go with him for the mag overhaul, but I did decide to go with him for building me up a custom shielded harness to go with my C-26 plugs with Ercoupe cups on top cylinders and REM-40 E plugs on the bottom. His quote was $200 for the harness. He also quoted me $5 a foot to make me a new P-lead harness. So I agreed over the phone. I sent my old harness out the next day April 4.

Three days later, I sent my two used mags to Ted Van Landingham. That weekend Ted called to let me know that one of my Mags was obsolete and was missing a service bulletin change that should have happened in the 1950's. I had two other cores so I sent them to Ted as well. He called another time to let me know about some new parts needed, which I OK'd. Two weeks later I had two beautifully rebuilt mags delivered from Velocity shoppe. Numerous new parts and some of my core parts were used. He sent back the un-used core parts. All of this for $ 398.00.



Still no word from Savage about the harness at that point. So I called Al who said yes I have your parts sitting here but I am swamped I will get to them this week. He politely thanked me for my patience. In the mean time I installed the mags with old plug wires and test flew... worked great. That was April 28. I am extremely pleased with Ted Vanlandingham at Velocity Shoppe and his customer service, workmanship, price, and turn-around time.

After 6 weeks (May 18) my harness finally arrived from Al at Savage Magneto. Bottom wires went in just fine. Top wires were all wrong after I had gone to great lengths to explain the custom fittings needed for the Ercoupe cups. Al had claimed he knew just what was needed, but failed to get it right. OK no big deal. I sent them back and he made it right, apologized and got them back to me within a week. I then discovered that the P-lead harness isn't right either, but I decided I can modify this myself and I wouldn't make a big deal out of it. Then his invoice arrived.... $ 375.00!!!!! I finally got the parts installed yesterday. They are right and the quality is good. My only problem is that I have been over-billed by $175.00 for a $200.00 part. I phoned Al and he said he billed me $300 for the harness and included the P-leads on that price. Then there was another charge for $75 for parts. I re-checked my notes and confirmed I was quoted $200 for harness plus $5/foot on the P-leads. So, I expected a bill for around $240 total. He said the price is $375. This is outrageous. I am still dissatisfied with Al. I have not paid the invoice yet. I think I am going to send him the $200.00 as quoted and his P-leads back.

p.s. I will test run the engine tonite and possibly test fly. These plug wires better work, or I will send the whole mess back to Al with his invoice included.

[Ragwing nut]

Re: Rebuilt Accessories for N95598

Ted is a good guy, been dealing with him for MANY MANY years. Only dealt with Savage once. Only thing I remember was how expensive he was.

[Jim Herpst]

Re: Rebuilt Accessories for N95598

Dont know who was out at Skyranch but they built me a beautiful set of shielded wires for the SCINTELLA mags on my Baby Ace > dont know if you are refering to them in any of this or not.