Today I got
Elen, my beloved 400/4 back from her engine rebuild
. It took a while because of unforeseen things mostly, but what irritated me was that from the start I asked them to check the condition of my primary chain, which they said was ok when I rang in. But later they rang me to say they had to open her up again because the more senior mechanic from their main shop said the engine still had noises that can't be ignored, the primary needed to be changed.
Also the clutch cushes where worn with too much movement. Well, I got a primary from DSS and a whole nice condition clutch from Steve at 400four bits. Top gear on countershaft had wear in it but after discussion on here I decided not to pay about £300.oo and wait about two more weeks for this item, I never had trouble with top gear btw. A leaky carb was also dealt with, but the carb repair kit I ordered from Legend never turned up, so I gave up and got one from DSS, that got here quick thank gawd, the other kit remains in transit or something.
Well... I happily went to collect her, and I was told they had done some work on the tail light too, I could see that already, after all ... it was upside down!
Embarrassed mechanic put it right for me. That said she now sounds and feels great, rejuvenated even. When I get home I get the feeling someone was definitely in a hurry to finish up though because something didn't look right, the oil filter housing is on sideways, it was sort of smiling at me.
mmmm... surely it can't do any harm if I plain leave it like that a while? The cost of the job was £700.oo, the parts I bought myself for around £500.oo.