What a factory defect looks like

[JERSEYDEVIL]

had a guy find me through ebay, it started when he bought a manual petcock from me last May thinking it would cure what was ailing his motor. he ended up calling me and picking my brain. christmas 2012 he bought a new trailmaster 150XRX. he told me from day 1 that it never seemed to run right. after a few minute of running in fact it would start to run worse. trying to troubleshoot over the phone can be tough especially w/ someone new to the sport. he started asking about what bolton parts that might cure a "rough" running buggy should he buy. we tried an intake in case of a vacuum leak, coil/cdi, carb and i even talked him through adjusting his valves. both of us scratching our heads as the condition never got better. i started wondering if maybe he had a defective head that was affecting the valve train. finally he called me to tell me his kids were on it and it quit. when he went to turn it over the starter would spin but that was it. i told him that maybe the start clutch went. he asked if he pulled the motor and sent it to me would i go through it and try to figure it out, rebuild it and make it a little stouter.
he sent the motor and we bolted it up to the start stand, we went to set it at TDC and noticed the piston wasnt moving. we tore it down to find the rod had pulled itself through the piston. we got the parts rebuilt it put it back up on the stand and fired it up. it ran for maybe 10 minutes and shutdown suddenly by itself. we drained th oil to open it back upto take a look and a few drops came out. we scratched our heads wondering where the oil went. jeff started tearing it down from the right cover till he found something. the passage from the crankcase to the oil pump was block by a paper thin piece of casting . well the customer wasnt nuts. basically whatever oil was in there went around once became trapped in the crankcas and could get back to the oil pump. fortunately we ony hurt the piston and ring and was able to get it back together. the blockage was paper thin, a poke from a screwdriver cured it.

[Miamieddie]

Wow!!! Good job on fixing it. He's going to be a happy customer.

[bear]

Thats one for the books!!! fact is stranger than fiction sometimes!