- Joined
- Jun 23, 2011
- Messages
- 786
Since it doesn't appear we have a "Projects"? section, I'm posting this here...
A friend of mine is a auto mechanic. A current project of his is fixing a 2007 Kawasaki supercharged watercraft for one of his customers that he's friendly with. Customer is only paying for parts not labor and understands it's a "favor."
In an attempt to get the supercharger pulley off to change the pulley bearing (which was shot), my mechanic friend broke the nose piece off the Supercharger. I can't fault him too much for this since the nose piece is merely cast white metal of some sort with a thin cross section through the broken area - although I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have damaged the unit getting it off.... :whistle:
Nonetheless, it's over $3500 for a new supercharger and the nose piece isn't sold separately. Ouch!!! And that's best available "internet price". MSRP tops $5200!!!
So, my friend came to me about possibly making a new nose piece. After looking at it I priced it at $150 plus materials (materials came from the scrap bin). It took me about 4-5 hours to make a new one from 6061 round stock.
Here's the old broken part:
Here are views of the new one as compared to the broken one.
It was a fun little job using the lathe and a rotary table on the mill!!!
And, despite the SNAFU, my buddy's customer is still saving money because a new pulley assembly (with new bearing) is $452!!! The bearing is not meant to be removable (it's staked in) but it can be machining out the old bearing and making a staking tool to install a new one into the old pulley. This work I've already performed and am "donating to the cause." The new bearing was $25 (paid for by the customer).
John
A friend of mine is a auto mechanic. A current project of his is fixing a 2007 Kawasaki supercharged watercraft for one of his customers that he's friendly with. Customer is only paying for parts not labor and understands it's a "favor."
In an attempt to get the supercharger pulley off to change the pulley bearing (which was shot), my mechanic friend broke the nose piece off the Supercharger. I can't fault him too much for this since the nose piece is merely cast white metal of some sort with a thin cross section through the broken area - although I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have damaged the unit getting it off.... :whistle:
Nonetheless, it's over $3500 for a new supercharger and the nose piece isn't sold separately. Ouch!!! And that's best available "internet price". MSRP tops $5200!!!
So, my friend came to me about possibly making a new nose piece. After looking at it I priced it at $150 plus materials (materials came from the scrap bin). It took me about 4-5 hours to make a new one from 6061 round stock.
Here's the old broken part:
Here are views of the new one as compared to the broken one.
It was a fun little job using the lathe and a rotary table on the mill!!!
And, despite the SNAFU, my buddy's customer is still saving money because a new pulley assembly (with new bearing) is $452!!! The bearing is not meant to be removable (it's staked in) but it can be machining out the old bearing and making a staking tool to install a new one into the old pulley. This work I've already performed and am "donating to the cause." The new bearing was $25 (paid for by the customer).
John
