POS 107

[d1hojo07]

Here's my story,

After finding out my second POS HD crank had run out of over .010 on each side I decided to have Darkhorse do it up for me. I also decided to go with a GMR 107 to open her up a little. I brought the long block up to Steve and after talking to him decided to go with the R&R 5 piece. I figured 3 or 4 weeks at the MOST and schedueld some things around that. Well, 8 friggin weeks later I go pick up the motor. I get it home, put it in the bike and start puting it together. First problem -- I need to space the cam sprocket out .180 to line up with crank gear. WTF? I call Steve-- I've done a lot of these and havn't had this problem but I would just space it out. Okay, I call R&R and they ground a ,080 spacer for me and I pay for over night. Now R&R is supposed to send spacers with there cranks because they make the pinion shaft a little longer because they only use gear drive. I put a new stock cam plate and new oil pump and new tensioners in it and go to the comp side. After checking alignment the comp sits over .020 too far in, HUH? Called Steve and again just space it out. Okay, Get it all together, load a map in the tmat that Steve and Zippers recomended, did the heat cycles and took it for a spin. Has a bad vibration and weird sound from the front cylinder and the comp side. Take the primary apart to double check everything and notice the crank seal is melted. Called Steve, Not my fault, and find out it's an oem seal so I get a seal to change it out. Got the seal out but nicked the crank a little, no problem. cleaned the spots up with a small file and spacer went on just fine. To get the seal started back in I used the center of the SE comp and hit it one too many times and put some marks on the end of the splines. no biggy. While checking the SE comp real good I thought where the sprocket rides on the center part was a little too loose so I ordered a new one. Checked everything again and put it back together. Went to the other side and checked the pushrods-just fine-went for a ride and still there. Between now and then I put in new lifters, SE rocker support plates, new shafts, new rockers, new clutch hub bearing, new inner primary bearing, new SE compensator and who knows what else. Talk to Steve, It's just the tune. He doesn't like the tmat so I need the TTS and a tune and all will be fine. I'm pretty much broke after all this but my wonderfull girlfriend says, do it if this will fix all this. So, I take the tmat out and put the stock ECU back in, put it on a trailer and go another 100 miles up to Prescott for a tune. I leave it there and Steve calls and tells me I really need the big zippers ac to get the most out of it so he has to order it. Steve calls and says man this thing is so smooth and 115 TQ and 103 HP with the zippers ac. We get a ride back up there to pick up the bike and I take it for a ride and it's buzzing pretty bad. Sounds good and runs pretty good for the short ride I took. Steve says it's my handlebar bushings. I have the harder neopreme ones from harley and it still doesn't have the zippers ac on it. I'm looking at the bike and something soesn't look right for some reason. Well about half way home my gf is asking what that noise is and why it's vibrating so bad. The exhaust bracket is broke and one rear exhaust stud is broke. I'm a little pissed and just take it home to fix myself because I need this bike to get to work. I fix the bracket but have to pull the head to get the stud lazered out. Well, I figured this should at least fix this vibration-WRONG-still there and the bike just didn't run right. I also asked Steve why I didn't get MY heads and cylinders back. He says those are you cyliders and I said no they are not. I had the fins ground down in a couple spots. Then it changed to Oh, well they just get exchanged sometime, is there a problem with that? I had to have the bike to go to work so I said screw it and road it for a while. I talked to Steve a few times but it was always - the bikes not here-the tune is fine-and whatever. I started thinking maybe what I'm hearing and feeling isn't in he motor, it's in the tranny. I take it to a indy shop in mesa that I like, really nice people. The mechanic checks it out and says he thinks it's in the crank. I don't think so, this is the great R&R 5 piece crank, noooo way. I take it to a stealership and a couple guys ride it a say they think it's in the crank-I don't think so, this is the great R&R 5 piece crank. In the meen time the vibration and noises ar getting a little worse but to keep my job I have to ride the bike.So that job is over and I pull the primary apart again for the umpteenth time and check the runout..012 WTF! I just sit there and get sick to my efin gut. I call Steve and I don't remember much but it was fine when it left here and I should call R&R. I call R&R and again he can't believe it but he wants me to check the pinion side. So, I pull at all apart again and the pinion side is .021 out. Now I have to pull the motor out again and get it to Steve. I pull it apart and you could see where the back of the front piston was hitting the cylinder and the back of the rear piston was hitting the back of the rear cylinder. So I borrow a car and get all the stuff up to steve and the pinion was closer to .022 out. He calls R&R and tells them the problem and is going to send the stuff to R&R. About a week later I call R&R and they still havn't recieved it yet. They finally get it and I talk to John-really nice guy- and the crank shifted. They don't know why, this has never happend before. He said it should be going back to Steve Friday or Monday. I'm thinking I should be able to go pick it up, get it back in the bike and have my transportation for work. I call Steve and it's not there. He asked me if I had talked to Jr at R&R and that they were holding it untill they talked to me. Again, WTF? I call Jr but he's not there and wont be there untill tomarrow. I talk to John and then find out that all they have is the crank.WTF So, I talk to JR the next day and there trying to say that the marks on the splines mite have caused this and they don't want to pay for anything but the crank. Steve isn't going to pay for anything. they said Steve was supposed to send all the stuff and that Steve put the stuff on hold, not R&R. I'm just efin sick and don't know what to do. =====12-6-09 Well, after another 6 1/2 weeks I went to gmr and picked up my motor. Now there trying to blame it on the tmat. R&R said they checked the jugs and they were still in spec even though the pistons were slapping in both of them and the pistons were still good too. I called steve wednesday to see if my motor was done and he said it just showed up that morning. He said it would be ready saturday morning and if I wanted it sooner I could come up and get it and put it together myself. He didn't even want to cover the gaskets on this. He did come up with some orings and some other stuff. You wouldn't believe what it looked like when I picked it up. The heads were filthy even where the head bolts were torqued down. One fin on the front jug was bent down but he fixed it before we left. I'm hoping he cleaned the surface for the head gaskets. =======Well, I had to go spend some more money for gaskets to put it together AGAIN. Bought a new stock comp and rotor and a new primary chain. pulled the clutch apart again and checked it all the best I could, looks fine. Put new lifters in it and started it up. Did all the heat cycles and took it for a ride. WTF? Just what I was afraid of. The front piston is rattling like crazy. So much for in spec. must be HD stealership specs LOL. What a job. I also had to pay for a new oil pump and replace the cam plate. This whole ordeal has cost me a fortune and partialy lost me one job. I was told that the rod bearings were beat out of it yet, the pistons and jugs are just fine? I could say alot more but WTF, I'm sunk.

[squish]

i see a pattern emerging here....

[TalonChief]

Originally Posted by apache36

i see a pattern emerging here....

Whewww, thought it was just me.

[YankeeBob]

I know I am out of bounds saying this, please forgive me. But, there is a response across the street.
I'm not defending ANYONE, just stating relevant info for fairness.
If I have crossed a line, please delete this post.

[MegaGlide]

For the sake of fairness, I'll leave Bob's post, but that's it.
No inter-forum cross posting over this.
Anybody has any reply to Steve's response across the street, post it across the street.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

[FXDRYDR]

I am so sorry to hear of this for the headache and loss of hard-earned it's caused. IMO, the stand-up thing would be for the vendors involved to immediately make good at no cost asap.

The problems with GMR aren't a sudden development and there is a fair number of folks with very similar experience. After dealing with the guy myself, I have nothing good to say and I suspect we'll never see him be a sponsor here...

From before its introduction there's been a lot of hoopla about the R&R crank being the greatest thing since sliced bread. However, reading between the lines, it requires additional machining to get it to fit. It also uses a proprietary rod length and a smaller diameter crank pin. Common sense tells me that in a day of ever-more-powerful motors a smaller crankpin is not a better design. So this is now the second major failure of an R&R crank I've heard of in the last month.

I hope this gets straightened out and you're back on the road.

[BillyB]

Sounds like an expensive and painful ordeal. I'd be finding another person to do all of my work in the future. Hope you are able to get this behind you and get some miles in the wind to help forget about it in the coming weeks.

[route66paul]

I wonder if it could be the cases in this type of repeated situation....................


How much flex is there?

[PeaceKeeper]

Idont know what to say, your patience is admirable. The shop that is a sponsor here has raving recommendations and I am told is one of the best anywhere, he is gonna do mine as soon as I find the coin. Maybe you can ship the motor to him, call JD, Im sure he can help. I hear there is nobody better. Wish you the best.

[Geezer-Glide]

Another person snake bit.........
Sorry for your troubles.

Oh, and please don't tell me that your cylinders are RevPerf nickasil......... because you'll be taking them off and throwing them away in about 6000 miles..

Several of us in this forum and the one down the street chased that "majic bullet" a couple of years ago. NO ONE kept them. POS!!!

[Backroad Mike]

Originally Posted by Geezer-Glide

Another person snake bit.........
Sorry for your troubles.

Oh, and please don't tell me that your cylinders are RevPerf nickasil......... because you'll be taking them off and throwing them away in about 6000 miles..

Several of us in this forum and the one down the street chased that "majic bullet" a couple of years ago. NO ONE kept them. POS!!!

Swim still has them in his bike.

[Mercury]

Alot of people just have their stock crank "fixed" through Dark Horse, and it seems to end the problem. I've heard your story before, and I've also heard stories from others that loved the R&R crank. I have no experience with them or opinion because I haven't dealt with them. I do my own work. When I finally twist the crank in mine, I plan on sending the whole bottom end to Dark Horse. I hope it never happens, but if & when it does...

[Bone Stockman]

R&R stands for "remove & replace". It's not just coincidence that your crank has issues.

I hate hearing stories like this, but unfortunately that seems to be the overwhelming consensus with both GMR and R&R. Good luck!

[71baldboy]

Man that was a difficult post to read...

[MegaGlide]

Originally Posted by 71baldboy

Man that was a difficult post to read...

Paragraphs.
They're not just for breakfast any more.