hope you get it lined out and personally glad to see someone dump money into an "old" bike....

 

Heres the deal--
You need to have KJC document everything they fix, or find installed incorrectly. They may be resistant to putting it on paper, but once its fixed--its your word against his. Photos work wonders in court.
Same for dealer. Document that customer brought in bike with speedo inop or whatever. Take pictures or video BEFORE you drop it off, just in case.

Then go visit a local attorney. Should cost you more than $500 or so.
They can send a letter of demand, with stipulations of repair or refund.
if he doesnt repsond, then you file a claim.

More likely than not, if you go to court, he will claim he was not aware of the problems, and "if you had just brought it back, he would have fixed the issues"--typical response. So you had damn well have times and dates that you talked to him, or went to his shop. Write them in a date book, or on a calender---NOW, not later.
Usually, the first thing a judge will do is give him an opportunity to fix the issues. If you already got it fixed somewhere else--you must be able to show that after multiple attempts, you had no choice but to seek alternative solutions.
Basically, your $30,000 bike was rendered inopperable by the shop for an extended period, the shop owner would not respond to your efforts, and you had no other options.
It was dangerous, inconvenient, costly, and time consuming.
This is not a "warranty" issue, but if it drags on, it could be.

DOCUMENT EVERYTHING---then sue his ***. This is easy.
But if you lay down and dont persue it, he beat you out of your money.
And he will do it again to someone else.

 

Thanks for the advice.

I sent Shane a certified letter on September 6th which he signed for receipt on September 8th. It basically said that he had not fulfilled our original contract and I detailed the things that were wrong. I also told him that because there were two problems that I identified immediately upon receipt that he knew about and did not disclose and the fact that he refused to accept a check, indicated to me that he knew there were additional problems with the tranny and that it constituted a deliberate attempt on his part to defraud me. I also told him that because he had intentionally tried to defraud me, I would not give him the opportunity to fix the problems (especially since he had already told me he couldn't fix the neutral light problem anyway). I told him I would have someone else fix the problems and that we would settle the monetary end in small claims court.

My local Harley dealer has already fixed the speedometer ($208). The technician who fixed it test rode the bike and commented that he didn't know how I was able to ride the bike with the transmission like that. One of the service managers who pulled the bike out made a similar comment. I'll go back and talk to them this week, document their comments, and get them to sign a statement.

KJC is supposed to call when my new gear set comes in. I'll make sure they test drive it before-hand and document their comments.

Thanks again.

 

Two days ago (Wednesday) I decided that before I took the bike to KJC to get the transmission fixed I would do a clutch adjustment to see if it would help the problem with the transmission not shifting into neutral with the engine running.

When I tried to remove the derby cover, I discovered that Shane had tightened the derby cover screws so tight that they were all but impossible to remove. In fact, I had to drill the head off of one of the screws.

Once I got the derby cover off, I discovered that the clutch adjustment screw locknut was missing. So, I had to go the local HD dealer and buy new derby cover screws and a new locknut to do the clutch adjustment. What I don't know is if Shane didn't put the locknut on there at all or if the locknut is sitting in the bottom of the primary. I'm betting on the later but will find out for sure next week.

After the clutch adjustment, I can now occasionally get the transmission to shift into neutral with the engine running. I honestly think if I go back and do the adjustment one more time I may be able to get the tranny to shift into neutral with the engine running all the time.

Shane originally told me that the problem with the transmission not shifting into neutral would fix itself when the clutch discs wore in. However, after going back and reviewing my bill, there was no charge for new clutch discs. So, either I got new clutch discs for free and the story about the the clutch discs wearing in was just a bunch of crap OR he installed the original discs and the story is still a bunch of crap.

It seems like every day I find another example of why this guy shouldn't be working on motorcycles.

 

Well, I picked the bike up from KJC yesterday and I think all of the issues with the tranny are finally worked out. I took it for a test drive yesterday and the NEW 6-speed tranny (Baker OD) worked flawlessly. I can honestly say that, given what they had to deal with in the 6-speed gear set installed by SWM, Kendall Johnson Customs does incredible work.

I guess the best way to classify the tranny work done by Shane Wallace Motorcycles is a grenade with the pin half way pulled.

As I suspected, the folks at KJC did find the missing clutch adjuster locknut in the bottom of the primary case. Also, when they removed the primary cover, Shane had used so much silicone sealant on the primary cover trying to get it to seal, it took the technician at KJC two hours to remove it all. And, the new primary gear was installed incorrectly and was rubbing the back of the primary case.

With regards to the transmission itself, Shane had tried to use the shifter cam from an EVO transmission. However, he did not change the shifter cam pawl. Since the channels on the EVO shifter cam are shallower than the channels on the later shifter cams the shifter pawl would not remain engaged with the cam. The pawl would constantly pop out of the channels on the cam. This is the reason the transmission was hard to shift and why the shift lever had to be hit at least twice when downshifting from one gear to the next. It is also the reason the neutral light would not work. With the EVO shifter cam, for the neutral light to work correctly, it would have also required the use of an EVO top cover for the neutral sensor to be in the correct position.

In addition to these problems, the shifter forks were the incorrect length. With the few miles that were on the transmission (less than 50 miles), the shifter forks were already showing significant wear.

Also, when riding along in any gear if you blipped the throttle, the tranny or primary would make a loud clunk. It's not really clear what was causing that, but after KJC installed the new gear set, the clunking noise is no longer there.

At the end of the day, I've learned a very expensive lesson. Whether I'll ever get any money back from Shane Wallace Motorcycles remains to be seen. That will be a matter for Small Claims Court to decide. I made the mistake of going against the premise that you get what you pay for. Normally, I would never do that. I've never done it in the past but I made an exception this time. I'll never do it again.

The only thing remaining it to have another baseline done on the dyno. And, I'm certainly not doing that to verify the numbers given me by SWM. I'm doing it to have the fuel mixture (and probably the timing) checked to ensure that SWMs tuning isn't going to cause the engine to grenade. It's obvious to me now that I can't trust any of the work done by Shane and I certainly don't want to see the good work done by the engine builder ruined.

 

I have built bikes for 15 yrs. shut up

 

 

How many of them ran correctly after you built them?

 

Nice! If this is bs, lets hear your side of the story.....

 

That's all you have to say? Great start!