First off let me say that I hate to bash someone's business or lack thereof... I'm pissed off and probably should've waited to post my vent, but I am not going to. I only comment on here when I can help someone, with my lessons learned over many years of playing with cars. I am also grateful for the may things I have learned from the folks on this site. So move on if you don't want to hear a rant. First off, I spent what to me is serious money with this man. He has a wealth of information in his brain, there is no doubt about that. We didn't agree of some things on the ph first off, but that was just his lack of machine shop knowledge about why the front cylinder of a 235 always wears a bad ridge, actually any I6. Its due to the water pump being on that front cylinder and it always being cooler. Every machinist knows this. Yet he wanted to argue it with me on our first ph call 8 months ago. Anyway, these Ford escort want-to-be webber carbs he sent me showed up in a box with hard styrofoam packed around them. Much of it was turned to absolute powder and was in every aspect of these carbs that was open. I could not believe they were not even in a big ziploc bag. Not to mention the carbs looked like they had been sitting on a shelf for who knows how long. Everything iron was covered in rust. I spent the better part of the day cleaning and scrubbing them to my satisfaction. As anyone that has seen what fuel does to styrofoam will know why. After all that, I got my engine fired up in my chassis to do cam break-in and run a few heat cycles. When I noticed the air/fuel mixture screws are not exposed. They are capped off like many of them where, due to the Government's wisdom of emission standards in the 80's. None the less the engine ran good but was lean. I called him and he said. "Oh wow those are supposed to be cut out here at the shop, they must have been shipped without them being done. Send them back and we'll check them out. Or you can cut the cup out if you want to get to the adjustment screw." I had a small jewelers carbide bit so I removed the cup but did not like how the phoney O-ring bairly sealed around the adjustment screw so I called again to see if he used a better screw set up. He couldn't wrap his mind around what I was talking about.. Maybe I don't articulate so well? WTF? He said "send them back we'll check em out and send you new ones or see what needs to be done." Ok I pack them up (100% better than they where shipped to me) and send them out to him at $60 shipping. Granted I sent them to him 2 day mail. That's on me i guess. He never call's I ask him via email for tracking when they ship back. I get an email last week the tracking shows they will be here 2 days from now. I get a call today telling me "ya we replaced the screws and re-adjusted the carbs as the throttle plate and choke was off." bla bla Then he hits me with, "I need a master card for the $20 labor." I'm like, "Excuse me??? Do you not agree had they never left your shop with the plugs sealing the air/fuel mixture screws, I would not have had to send them back." He said, "Yes I agree." Then how the hell can you justify charging me for your mistake?? "Well I'll just charge you for shipping then." The F&^% you will. I can't believe someone would try to do business like this. "Well I'll just write you off then." No, I think you have it wrong, its me thats writing you off Tom. This is not the only issue I had with his products. The cheap cap that comes with the hei distributor had the plug wire contacts falling out of it. He sent another one out after I bitched about it. Not to mention sending the wrong water block off plate for the offenhauser intake but I ate the shipping on that without protest. I also sent let him know he should think about shipping his carburetors out in a different manner as mine where a disaster when I got them. No response. See photos. People forget who is buying and selling these days. I feel he is the kind of guy that squeezes a nickel until the buffalo shits. Okay someone can kick the soap box out from under me and set my ass on fire. Just let me have a beer first.
I have to agree that your thoughts are well founded . People are human and make mistakes but if your a professional at what your doing for a business then it needs to go from point A to point B.
Shipping alone raises questions with the special nature of these components... I hope for an amicable resolution to this overall negative transaction.
i never had an issue ,i bought the same carbs setup from him, worked good out of the box hope your issues get fixed
Crazy. I bought a set up from him years ago and it was tits. Threw everything on and it ran great and is still running great to this day. I've called him a few times and he has always helped me. But like Chopped said, I thought he retired? Maybe he sold his stock to somebody else.
No, he is still doing business. I've talked to him many times. The engine with the set up ran great and I'm sure will continue to do so once the carbs come back, with the fix they should have had originally. Enabling them to be adjusted.. I'm just done with him. If someone deals with him in the future, wear your tin pants.
My understanding is that Tom Langdon and Tom Lowe (12Bolt.com) made a deal whereby Tom Lowe took on the 194/230/250/292 parts Tom Langdon had been selling and Langdon continued to market the Stovebolt parts. Ray
You are correct Hnstray. Tom Langdon also supports the flat head mopars. I also make mistakes when sending out parts. We are human. Sounds like thing could have went better on both sides.
I just bought a distributor from him and a reworked 292 Dampner for an early model 6 and everything was perfect. Good luck.
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