I think the finish depends on where the technician considers the endpoint to be.
Is it enough if an engine that won’t start finally fires up? Is it enough if leaking oil stops? Is it enough if a burned-out bulb lights up again?
There are always facts we think we understand but haven’t really digested.
There’s a term called overhaul (or OH), but its definition is vague and extremely difficult to pin down.
What happens when you perform that OH?
If you’re thinking it’ll come out looking brand new, you’re in for a shock.
I don’t know what ratio or proportion of new and used parts will be used. The number of discontinued and out-of-stock parts for the components you want to replace keeps growing year after year.
We anticipate such situations, but the reality is we have no countermeasures in place.
When people assume OEM parts are always available anywhere, they don’t stock them.
For example, bikes like the Kawasaki Z and Suzuki Katana are considered classics and have an abundance of reproduction parts available, so they can still be kept alive.
But even these legendary bikes have difficult parts and areas.
What’s especially troublesome is rubber parts.
To put it bluntly, metal parts can usually be managed these days, but rubber parts are honestly extremely difficult.
Do we really have to start from scratch with the mold and study rubber compounds?
That’s not realistic, so we may have no choice but to search everywhere for places like former OEM suppliers and have them made.
Since they’re just black lumps, amateurs can’t tell the composition from the outside.
How much heat resistance does it have? What about solvent and chemical resistance? How does it compare to the original? The reality is we can’t just take a stab at it.
An intake manifold is still outside the engine, so that’s manageable, but…
What’s surprisingly a bottleneck is the “camchain guide (slider).”
When it’s new it’s so soft, but once it gets a little old it becomes hard as ceramic. People used to break them.
It’s no longer enough to just look up a part number, inspect the part that arrives, and install it.
Every day there are more things we need to do and more research to conduct, which is the tough part.
Alibaba-style so-called reproduction parts are circulating in the market, and we’re starting to see a mix of genuine and counterfeit parts. If they work, that’s fine, but some don’t, so we need to be careful.
