Anyone dealt with Joe Hunt recently? This not a complaint in anyway so far that is... I'm just curious how long it took to get your mag serviced? After talking with a rep online and on the phone I was under the impression of a few weeks meant just that. I emailed just to make sure it got there as at that point there was really no rush; which I mentioned but I did ask again for a rough idea of when I'd get it back... My response was an abrupt "We got it, when we get around to it, we'll call you", from someone other than the two persons that were much more helpful before sending it. Normally I could care less as long as it gets done right, but I've grown a new problem. I need the mag to break in my engine, more so because my friend is closing his machine shop in less than a month. I'd like to dyno the engine before this occurs instead chancing it at some place else. I'd imagine they are busy gearing up for racing season for all the winter states. I don't want to be an ass bothering them but its been going on three months now which is quite a bit longer than few weeks and I'm not too pleased with my response from before. Is this typical in your experience?
Try to borrow a mag if you can. I waited 2 months for a mag from them. The mag was shot and they were busy. Well worth the wait as they were the only ones I trusted for a bike Mag and worked excellent. Car mags I take to Zig (he wont do bike mags) but you wait for Don to as his shop is always busy.
Thanks for the post, I also have a spare mag but it needs work and they have the base for it too. I might just buy an MSD, for my driver and use that to fire this engine.
joe hunt was a friend, he has been gone for a long time and his son, i believe, doesnt own anymore. joe was a nice guy and son tom, i think, is no longer there. they should not tell you any crap like that and you should take it back and take to an aircraft mag shop and they will mag for you and test. not sure but i think is hunt mags, not joe hunt. joe would roll in his grave if they treat you like that. if they're too busy then they shouldnt take the mag. bad business. good luck
Roger is easy to talk to and seems sincere or seemed sincere, I just got my mag back from an extended stay there I talked to him several times while it was there and discussed what I wanted done they got it mostly right, the mag came back looking like new but I asked for straight plug wires and got 90s I asked to have the original Joe Hunt badge that was on it put back on but got the new clown style badge instead they replaced the D drive gear with a hex drive gear I had them put a tach drive base on and they kept the original base and he quoted me one price over the phone but when I got the invoice it was $23 and some change more. I did call him back as soon as I opened the box and got a sincere sounding response... I get the feeling there is a breakdown in internal communication on their end.. we'll see how it all pans out
Thanks again for the posts. I talked to both Steve and Roger before and they were both very helpful... Roger claimed that keeping its vintage appearance and its original early 60's Ronco tag were no problem as reconditioning was an extra charge service. They even said they would match a tach drive base to its appearance as best as possible and this was a common request. If my vintage Mag ends up refinished with a new tag I'm going to loose it. I'd rather get it back as is than have it ruined. Now I'm really glad I got paranoid, took the original Bakelite cap and rotor off it and reboxed it at the last minute before shipping it. I can not find the Email but I want say it was Jim who responded to me last. It was obvious he could care less and did not answer any of my questions. It could have been one of those days, I think I talked to him before that too and he shot the bull with me just like anyone else but that was before I sent it in. Which was part of the reason it went there, I like supporting those that really live for this stuff. What I find amusing is when I send something out to a specialty shop, I always try for the "best", talk to them first, pay the going rate, and I'm fine waiting a bit longer to get top of the line service. I even tired to prepay the balance. It never fails, when its mine, I'm often that one case at a good shop that my parts are lost under the bench, shipped to the wrong guy, or some new twit ruins the exact features that make what it was. The same type of I'm too poor to be cheap attitude and patience from a customer I've never seen in my years of working for myself or other's in custom shops, never, not once. They know more than you do, but need you to build it for some reason, want a discount rate, want it done the wrong way because someone with absolutely no clue how whatever it is works said so but their shop can not provide said service, and after saying they can wait, they call every other day.... Paul, I see I'm not really alone on this one. I going to give them some more time and make a call to see what the deal is. Its been a month since my last email that I mentioned. Did they take yours back in for "restoration"? I was actually just curious before, but after hearing about yours I'm not sure what to think now. Like I said its not their problem I need it Yesterday all of a sudden, but It has been much longer than taking their time was supposed to take. Can you imagine if you needed one to make a race? How does that work, some outrageous buy in program?
I don't want to paint a bad picture here, all my issues are minor, the unit looks great and I have no doubt the thing will perform as expected for years Roger said to send the wires back and he'd exchange them he asked if I wanted them to put the original badge back on but, I asked him to send it and I'd put it on, I have several D drive gears and only a couple hex, so I'll keep this hex gear and swap one of my D drives on myself. any one of those little issues wouldn't have bothered me much just that a lot of little issues seams like one bigger issue I think I would still do business with them again as long as I wasn't in a huge hurry like I said it looks new
I agree with the fact that its not good business, but I've had much worse and I'm not mad yet... I know how you can get backed up and all, but I'd rather get a real answer; good or bad than be lied to or given the when we get to it deal. I know I'm just a single customer with a couple mags, no a huge account or insider with a big wallet. I still look at a "shop" as providing a service the customer needs instead of today's common attitude that the shop needs the customer. I try to give them that same respect as I would like but I think that is my problem, people are not used to that any more and often look at it as a weakness that they try to take advantage of. That is one of the reasons I find meeting people off the web so amusing, you can't Google an answer to sound educated or fake the size of your shoes. When I hear from them I'll post the results, Thanks again.
Paul, Thanks for the response. I understand that and I'm not either, the fact I choose them after a list of tips and calls should stand for reason I was confident in them. I was not happy about my response exactly but I'm not trying to insult them or start a boycott. I'm just hoping when it does get here I don't have a similar issue to yours as I was specific about exactly what I needed and assured it was no big deal. I'd be very disappointed with a new appearing part, that needs work after such time, cost, and correspondence before sending it... I was really looking for an account of the normal waiting period so that I would call them after such had lapsed so as I would be more justified in doing so. I still have my fingers crossed but I'm not holding my breath so to speak.
Tommy Hunt is a friend of mine he is no longer involved with Joe Hunt Magnetos Magtech in Speedway Indiana is MUCH closer to you they do great work 317-575-0533 tell em Roy sent ya
I dont know if you guys realize that people are getting $125.00 and up, for the old style Joe Hunt tags at Swap meets.
This a bit of a long winded rant, more than I really intended it to be, but I have to say I'm angry enough right now I can barely see straight. The more I thought about this and checked over my bill and old emails while typing the more I've noticed is wrong. I called in May for the first contacts since my last posts. I got attitude from Roger right from Hello, just by saying I had sent in a mag and was checking in on it. His response was "well its not done" before asking who I was, after I told him who and when he got the mag he was more personable. I was told I could have it in two days, I told him it would be fine if it was two weeks but I needed it soon now that it had taken so long and my original turn around was supposed to be two weeks... I also told him I had paid for dyno time and keep getting bumped further and further back thanks to this situation. After two weeks and two days they still did not have it ready, but he claimed to have it "close to going back together believe it or not", I offered to pay then and was told "we'll get on it". I'm just happy its paid for and coming eventually at this point. Man I'm getting soft... Its June 10th, after a few talks with Roger I finally have the mag back I sent out on January 22nd, I even got a free shirt three sizes too small so that is the good part. All and all I am thrilled just to have it back but I am not pleased with the service or the condition my mag was returned in. It is a bunch of small things I would just of let go if there were not so many... The last straw for me was my mint early Ronco tag I asked specifically not to be removed from the original body I tracked down being gone. The whole damn point of rebuilding a vintage mag is keeping it looking like it was. In Email, on the phone multiple times including when I paid and on the sheet the specs were written on it was mentioned but the tag was still pried off which the mag shows marks from and was replaced by a beat up new Hunt tag. Which is also dug into the mag body so the original tag will not cover the damage to the surface meaning between the cost of the mag and rebuild I have more in it than a brand new billet pro mag but the surface it is now ruined and needs refinished which will also defeat the point of paying for and searching out a nice original. I called just now looking for my early 60's tag which is blue with red in the lettering with a lighting bolt in the middle. Roger claims he has the only two styles of tags Ronco used (I've seen at least four styles) and will send both to me, nice guy, neither of which is the correct tag stolen off of mine from his description. In trying to ask about the problems Roger's response was to mumble more than normal and play stupid which has ticked me off even more. As a bonus I also bought their "vintage wire set" and got brand new wires and boots, which is now all they sell??? Looking at my mag they used rusted nuts on the body keepers instead of the original ones on it, took my bakelite ground knob and charged me $7 bucks for a new one. Now I'm really glad I took the good parts off it, and to be honest to see what my parts were replaced with I feel someone at Hunt is keeping the originals for themselves hoping you won't notice. With that I'm also missing my new cap I that was supposed to be included in the price but I did get new stickers on the junk cap I sent in just to protect the case in shipping. The base from this mag was also supposed to be returned and I don't have that either. At this point I'll never recommend Joe Hunt for anything... This is an outright shame, and pathetic to see an icon turn into this. I've found that waiting for them to call you will constitute hell freezing over or them to need beer money badly. Make sure you call them on every date they claim it will be done or they will continue to stretch it out and lie to you. Leaving them to get to it and take their time was my mistake hoping to get the best job possible. I know when I'm rushed by a customer my work is not quite as good as when I have the chance to take my time to make it as perfect as it can be. Its gets worse when you are cheap...This is not the case here as I still got a last minute slam bash job from the condition of the outside of my mag. With a bill of $1,040.30 shipped on a mag worth over the $400 I had in it before the rebuild you think you might get something decent in the end. The exact same setup with an in house old style mag but with the new tag, without refinish is only $800, a $1,000 with rare earth magnets. So for less money you can buy a vintage mag, buy a built old style mag thats been serviced from Hunt, and change the parts that count yourself, not have them steal from you and have two mags instead of one. Lesson learned I guess...
I had my "Ronco-Vertex" mag rebuilt and hopped up some buy a guy in the Dallas, TX area. Everything original on it stayed with it except for the magnets and some internals like the coil and such. Even the cap was retained. It took the guy 6 days and $350.00 later this thing will knock you on your ass. Shoots a blue arc that will light you up. I highly recommend him
Holly sh*t, that is redicules.Ive never had a problem like that, and now I wont use them. Sorry to hear that. There is no way that bill should be that much for a rebuild ever.
Beep, If you would post his information, for others. I'm already screwed on this one. With my luck so far the damn thing won't even work. I was burnt when I called but was even civil talking to Roger earlier, it is the more I go over this that I'm getting more mad, him trying to feed me a line of shit just took it over the edge. I almost doubted myself and had to check some pictures, to top it off I'm not sure its the same magneto at all looking at the condition of it. What does it further is I almost sent in an NOS Hunt 50's Y-block mag to be converted, they would have had a field day parting it out I'm sure. I had it on lone, with option to trade from a friend for I rare part I ended up using and it would have been a shame to change it over to SBF tach drive. This one is bad enough, I would have had twice as much in the NOS one. To be honest about the only thing I'm not really off on here is the price, if it was done as we agreed and I got everything. Mine is supposed to be completely new internally, has the tach base added, rare earth magnets, bronze gear, plus the wrong wires and new timing buzzer. With less bull, I could deal with it and move on. I had fully intended to send in another mag before all this happened. Now I'm not sure what to do, if do they send the Ronco tags cool at least its not the crap I have now but its no compairison to what I bought in the first place.
Here's the guy we use. And we light nitro. None better in my experience. Spud Miller. http://fuelinjectionent.com/ Here is our vertex after Spud did it. It runs the rare earth magnets, external condenser and coil and big cap. It started out at 1.7 amps, it is now 6 amps. We wanted to keep the old vertex look for the digger. Quick turnaround and super nice guy. this will do more than shock you, it will hurt you severely! This thing will light dirty dishwater.
Our experience... Had Joe Hunt go through this mag - didn't work - had to overnight it back to get fixed and overnight it back to us as we were short on time for a show... Sent this to French Grimes - did everything just as we wanted - converted a SBC mag for our flatty - reversed direction, etc. works awesome the first time and ever time... John R.
I'll speak up too. I bought a rebuilt (by hunt) mag. from a fellow HAMBer who knows his stuff. He hadn't installed it since the rebuild. I checked with Hunt to make sure it was infact rebuilt. They did have the records of when, etc. Anyhow I can't get it to run worth a crap. Installed the old Mallory distributor and she purrs. It could have been dropped, kicked, ??? who knows. I'll take it to someone else for sure to get it checked out. I had planned on sending it back to Hunt. I also placed a very small order (35 bucks) and got charged 25 bucks shipping from them for postal service to Oregon. The box didn't weight a pound ?????
You guys are making me REALLY nervous about getting my mag back from Hunt. It took a little over a month. I should have received it today but I wasn't home (damn work) and UPS needed a signature. I'll post again tomorrow and let you know...
is there a HAMBer who rebuilds/refurbishes mags? ive also got an old ronco that ill be using. supposed to work fine, but id like a contact just in case
Post 55, Don't get me wrong I think these guys can do good work but I did not get what I agreed to, paid for, or anything I'd call professional work or service. If it works fine to be fair I'll post that too as well as the tags that I'm supposed to get. They would have to be the last place still open for me to ever send them anything again. I hope this is not the case with your mag, the one month turn around you got makes me even less thrilled. If you don't mind what was done to yours and what did they charge you? I went over mine some more today and took it to my buddy's machine shop to check it to the engine. It looks much better in the pictures than in person but I did find the remains of the index letter stamps that were on it proving this is the same mag I sent in. The cobbled base is cut like a 351 unit with a shorter stub. I wanted to make sure at least that was right. The longer correct base would have been nice to hang a heavy mag off of but it does fit. Once again I paid for an original tach drive to be added and discussed this in detail that I did not want new billet or adapted parts but I got this bastard part made from a billet aluminum base, a steel adapter sleeve and part of the base I sent in, which explains why I did not get it back otherwise. For what I paid they did not even match the sleeve step flush to the base much less give me a ten cent O-ring for it. They also took the base I sent in and instead of moving the alignment pins in the main case to match the casting points they go in, holes were just drilled through base flange.
hard to see in your pictures but the threads for the tach drive look beat up like the ones they put on mine, I had to file the threads to get the cable nut to screw on. I've been running mine for a couple months now and must say I have no complaints with it's performance.
64, Yes, That is the junk cap I sent in, like I was saying before I had it all packed up and was actually heading to UPS at the last minute to ship it. Roger claimed if it got there ASAP it would be two weeks and back in my hands. I got paranoid as I have a nice early cap for it and a better early ground screw knob, I unpacked it took these parts off and put on the junk cap and a decent thumb screw I had. I also sent in some spare new parts that actually came with this magneto from Hunt. My buddy that I got it from has a nice collection that many were done at Hunts I had extra case bolts, nuts etc in the misc. none of which looked this bad. I wish he had the time to of sent it in or checked on it, if I got the service he has I'd be a life time customer. Paul, I'm glad to hear your works well. My threads have some marks that may be a problem but its not really bad more just the fuzzy pictures. My concern is I'm not familiar with the drive, it looks like it uses a round shaft with single key slot tooth. I'll have to dig out my tach to check it again but I thought it was square drive, that I asked for, hopefully I can find an adapter or drive. Where I should have known better is when I asked for it to be left looking old and original, Roger said "oh for a ratrod everyone is building those" when I said well no I want it to look like exactly as it does, like a surviving original, and he claimed "we do that all the time no problem". After that it was on the up and up, we went over what I wanted, I got a basic quote of $600-$650 for servicing it with the base change. I added the rare earth magnet upgrade, bronze gear, I wanted completely new internals, an original base ( which he said he had ) and gave the operating range of the cam while it sounded like he was taking notes. We talked about my car, shot the bull for much longer than I'd consider normal for a basic sales call, and all sounded good...Something tells me he was drawing stick figures getting it on or something instead. This what really gets me is usually when you find a person like this that can talk cars, you are in a bit better hands than with an order taker on a keyboard. The object here is to say what you want to hear, and build something close to it, whenever they feel like getting to it. I'm less ticked now but not happy, I'm hoping to try it soon before calling them again. With the wait on the mag I got bumped back some for other projects on the last details I need machined for the Algon which I have to plumb still and build a set of headers. Some gaskets, water pump bearings and little crap like that and I'm in business. The best part is I got a call yesterday about a place called Mag Tech a friend of a friend was very pleased with here in Ohio. I had never heard of them and they did not turn up in any searches I did.
Paul, Those are part of a friend's collection, and the main reason I thought Hunt was the best place to go as many have been serviced there. How to do it correctly on a mag I'm not sure but it takes an electromagnetic field to charge a magnet. I though this was cool. http://www.lindsaybks.com/dgjp/djgbk/magneto/index.html
I don't know if Cirello still works on vertical mags but you don't get jacked around there and you get your mag back quick. He did one for me while I waited once.
The Jalopy Journal
