[ST] Black ST returns to life (finally)!!

["Alex" <alexol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

For anyone interested in the end of the saga of the seized oil pump, here's
how it finally turned out...

The oil pump itself, contrary to early indications, was fine,  The problem
was that the shaft that drives it had seized due to galling of the plain
splash-lubricated bearing.  Apparently, this shaft is supposed to have some
very small clearance, and theoretically the splash lubrication is
sufficient.  In my case, the shaft was almost a press fit (i.e. virtually
zero clearance) and simply galled.  This was very clearly an assembly
problem, from the factory, but the bike was 25 months and 11,000 miles old
when the problem surfaced.

There were two options: either (A) try to hone out the case through which
the shaft goes and either clean-up or replace the shaft, or (B) replace the
shaft AND engine cases.  Option (a) involved about $800 worth of labor and
not a lot in parts and of course option (b) involved not a dissimilar amount
of labor plus some huge and ungodly number of folding drinking tokens for
new cases.

My local dealer went to bat for me with Triumph, and at the end of the day
Triumph agreed to either pay for the labor of option (A) or for the cases
(about $3k I believe) if I chose to go for option (B) - my choice.

After talking at length with Stan Cosper (the dealer) we decided that we'd
try the first option as it was the happier solution for all, and would go to
Plan B only if Plan A was going to be a less than ideal solution.  To cut a
long story short, Plan A worked out just fine and I'm now a very happy
camper.

The main purpose of writing this fairly boring little story is to say that
Triumph stood by their product.  Yes, they SHOULD have done so, but there
are many companies that don't.

So, a big "Thank you" to Triumph, as well as a big "Thank you" to Stan
Cosper of Eurocycles in Lafayette and to his mechanic Charlie!  This
restores my faith in the products to the point that a Bonneville again
becomes a highly likely stable-mate to the ST...

Alex






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