Trouble with shipping sawmill parts

[HORSELOGGER]

Paul, maybe you could just sell your mill to someone that isnt all knotted up about trivial things like customer service and parts availability, and buy a new D& L double cut mill. I bet Lindsay would appreciate your business

[Paul_H]

Bob T,
the mag is a Wico and from conversations with Ron from Mobile Mfg,he concluded that the impulse drive was toast and he said they are not a servicable item. It makes sense because the impulse drive to my understanding,controls the retarding and advancing of the timing.

To start the mill last few days,I would have to loosen the bolt that holds the mag and retard the engine or it would snap the rope right out of my hands(it's a 4 cyl with good compression) Once the engine was running,I'd advance the engine til it sounded right and then tighten the bolt.The problem with doing it this way is I wouldn't shut it down and would fuel the engine and load logs on the mill with two sharp spinning blades close by.
Eventually I couldn't even start it that way.

HORSELOGGER,

I think you're right there.I've had the pleasure of meeting Lindsey from D&L Doublecut and he took time from his day and gave me and my family a great tour of his factory.It would be hard to imagine something getting out of hand like this with him.

.

[getoverit]

Just to give you some perspective, I ordered some parts and supplies from a forum sponsor yesterday. When I checked my e-mail later on yesterday, I had 4.... count them...4 shipping notifications, and then 3 cancellations. I also recieved an e-mail from them giving my credit card a refund on part of the shipping costs. They had tried 4 different ways to get me the lowest rate they could, and finally found one that saved me enough for a whopper meal deal at burger king.

For that I am grateful, and will gladly do business with them again in the future. Better still 10% of my purchase goes to help support THIS forum.

Good Job Captain 

[Jason_WI]

http://www.magnetoparts.com/wico_rot.htm

Not sure if this helps. Hard to know what mag you have as you didn't specify an engine make.

  Somebody forgot rule #1 as a business owner: The customer is always right.

Jason

[Paul_H]

Jason,
it's a Wico and it has a Prestolite #   Spec,    xvd-2311  serial,  29 9


I am going to go to work for a logging company for a couple of days so I won't be around.I hope that I hear from Ron,and I really hope that Dawn is acting alone in her unprofessional response here.
When I left the messages this afternoon,it was with a lady named Leah,both time I called.She was polite and told me that Ron and Dawn were both busy but she would have them return my call.

I realise now that Dawn was registering on the forum and typing up a post while I was on the phone to Leah asking for Dawn.

What a day!

[VA-Sawyer]

Paul,
Maybe I can help a little with your impulse problem. The way one works is pretty simple. It has a tightly wound spring between two housings. The spring can't unwind because the two housings are meshed with each other. It is possible for the spring to be wound  up just a little be more ( about 30-40 degrees ) . There are two ( sometimes only one ) pawls on the housing than will catch on stop pins on the magneto frame. At very very low speed ( below about 400 RPM ) these pawls catch on the pins and stop the mag from rotating while the engine rotates those 30-40 degrees I mentioned earlier. The part of the housing driven by the engine also rotates those 30-40 degrees and forces the pawls to release from the pins. The spring now can snap to its origional position. This rapidly rotates the mag through the 'e-gap' and produces a hotter spark that is delayed till after the engine has rotated past TDC. ( e-gap is the point of rotation where the magnets are in the best position for generating voltage in the coil )  
As soon as the engine is running centrifigal force pulls the pawls inboard and they no longer catch on the pins. Once the engine is running, the impulse has no further effect on spark timing. It only retards the spark during very slow speed cranking.
You should be able to hear the mag impulse 'clacking' as you pull the engine over slowly. If not, I would pull that mag and take a quick look. The problem could be as simple as gunk built up on the pawls or pins. A little cleaning may fix it. I would also check the spring. Just try to rotate the mag in the normal direction of rotation and see if the pawls catch on the pins. Keep rotating a little more and feel for spring tension.  Then, being very careful to keep away from the plug wires so you don't get zapped, continue rotation and see if the pawls release and 'snap' the mag through the firing point. I think you should be able to figure out the problem and perhaps get that thing back up and running in an hour or two.
In thirty years of working on mags I have only seen one that I couldn't get working with simple tweaking or jerry-rigging. That one had a broken spring and we just replaced the whole impulse.
Hope this helps,
VA-Sawyer

[Corley5]

Paul, We converted a couple of our old Farmalls to battery ignition when the mag went bad by hooking up an external coil to the mag which then served as a distributor.  Attach a coil somewhere close to the mag and run a coil wire to it from new coil and hook up the hot and ground wires on the coil.  I've seen it done on everything from four cylinder Farmalls and twin cylinder JDs to a single cylinder Wisconsin Robin.  All it takes is a coil and battery to provide the juice.

[Paul_H]

VA-Sawyer,
thanks,that does help.I've got the mag sitting right here beside me and I think I'll have a go at taking it apart tomorrow,There is a exploded veiw in the MD book so I'll see what that and a little Rust Reaper will do.

Greg,
Where does the coil wire itself hook to? The cap has 4 plug wires and one terminal on the side.
This kit that I'm waiting on has a coil,distributor,starter,alternator and assorted brackets.



 

[VA-Sawyer]

I am very upset at this entire situation. I am the employee that Mr. Halverson has been speaking to. I can tell you that there is not ONE company I have ever done business with that would send a second shipment out without payment.

MobileMfg,
I have very bad news for you...Woodmizer has done just that very thing with me on more than one occasion. As an example, I ordered a idle side weldment that arrived here unusable because it had been welded together incorrectly, they send me a free replacement part ( Next Day Air free of charge )that unfortunatly was defective for a different reason. They then pulled and inspected a third part which they also shipped out free of charge. They also included a 'call tag' so the other defective parts could be returned to them at no cost to me.
Now I will admit that I was unhappy about the defective parts, but Woodmizer did everything they could to help me deal with it. That is what Customer Service is all about, and is why I say they are the best in the world at it. Yes they made and shipped defective parts, that is a Quality Control issue. QC is supposed to keep 'mistakes' from going out the door, but if one gets sent out, then it is the job of Customer Service to do what it takes to get it fixed as painlessly as possible for the customer.  That is just what the good folks at Woodmizer did. I hate getting defective parts as much as anyone else, but if I had to choose between good QC and good CS, I'd rather have the good CS.
VA-Sawyer

[Corley5]

The Farmall mags have a coil wire as do the Fairbanks Morse and Wicos on JDs.  It might not work on your mag.  On the Wisconsin Robin single cylinder the coil wire went to the plug.  Yours must have an internal connection from the mag coil to the cap  What hooks to the terminal on the side

[sawmill_john]

Hi Paul, sounds like your having a rough new year!  sounds like a tough spot both ways, I know I was involved with similar orders over the years, and if I screwed up I tried to make it right by sending out the parts the correct way and paying the shipping.   You should have emailed me, to get by all you had to do was go out and buy a used distributor and coil, use a 12 volt lawn mower battery , change the wiring and you could have been sawing in no time.  Over the years I spoke with lots of guys that did that.  The WICO mag is a great little unit but there are several brass bushing down in the impulse assembly that if lubrication is not kept up will get chewed up, when that happens all h*ll breaks loose and good bye impulse.  I hope you get back to sawing soon.
John

[Norm]

As an owner of a small business I can guarantee that we would ship out a replacement for a part that was not delivered in a timely manner at no charge. Timely would not be 60 days, it would be a matter of days past the expected arrival date. We ship to Canada on occasion and have not had any problems with the mail delivery system. If it has taken this long I would expect any company with scrupples to file a lost parcel claim, collect the insurance and reship at their expense.

Coming on here as a new poster degrading a long time friend and member with impeccable credentials is so tacky it's not even worth commenting about.


Paul I hope you can get back to running and sell that mill as soon as convenient. D&L makes a nice mill.

[Part_Timer]

Not only will a small company send out parts that aren't payed for they will ship them from halfway around the world.

Paul I wish I could help.  I shipped some Christmas presents to the Peterson staff and the USmail arrived in 2 weeks to "New Zeland".   

To those who are reading on here to try and figure out which mill to buy I would suggest to look at the sponsors to the left.  They are there because they care about their customers.  They are not only sponsors but are members of the forum.  I have never seen one of them berate a forum member in public.  I bet I never will.

Just my .02

Tom

[getoverit]

This is a prime example of what I learned in Business 101 waaaaaay back in the early 70's, and why some small businesses stay small and other small businesses grow to be big ones.

Good Luck Paul ! I truely wish I could help ya out.

[jpgreen]

Who in tarnation owns this company?.. 

Surely it can't be the ones participating here.  Someone should send him a note, so he (or she) can salvage this mess, and have a serious sit down with this lady before she's shown the door.. 

Let's see... It's been viewed near 400 times by an intensely targeted market...

[isawlogs]

 I have had a company send me a box of blades Overnight because the blades I had ordered where not here , not six weeks but 1 week after ordering them , they never asked for money , just did it . I was able to get back to sawing and they had a satisfied customer , that has returned there many times over .

[beenthere]

........would probably be in his companies best interest to make things right real quick.

   like Ms Dawn Malchow jumping in her car in Oregon and making a quick trip to BC with a part for a customer, maybe 

[Murf]

Mebbe it's just my twisted way of looking at things, but to put it into my perspective........

From MD to Paul's place is about 420 miles, that makes 840 miles round trip. An average person walks at about 4 miles an hour, so walking only 6 hours a day, they would cover 24 miles a day, or walking 6 days a week, 144 miles a week.

So in theory, a person could have walked the part there and delivered, and returned to the factory, it in less time than it has taken to get there so far. 

Houston, we have a problem here. 

[jpgreen]

................

[sawmill_john]

Wow, talk about a situation that has gone from bad to worse!  I'm glad I'm not involved!!  good luck Paul I hope you get your parts.  I'm out a here!   Mobile does have a toll free phone number 1-877-272-9645.   

John