Re: Pissed off pet peave ! Recycling

[jlandry@domain.elided (John A. Landry)]

The black helicopters hovering over the house recorded "Eppinger.Michael"
<Eppinger.Michael@domain.elided> whispering:

>I can buy 2 rebuilt alternators for that
>price.  It seems to me that this is really wasteful  (where the hell are
>the environmentalists and the recyclers for this).

Epp,

Eldon McFarland and I have been discussing brake booster overhaul off list
and have basically hit the same brick wall... even worse.  Eldon
disassembled a spare non-working Bendix dual diaphragm boosted he had just
to see what sort of spooky parts were inside.  He discovered that maybe a
couple of small seals could have used replacement in order to make the
booster like new.

The big problem we discovered is that parts are simply *not* sold to anyone
other than Bendix sub-contractors.  I personally called Bendix and talked
to an engineer.  He explained that they contract exclusively with
rebuilders to remanufacture the boosters.  In my opinion, this is why a
rebuilt boosters cost typically $150.00, when all Eldon needed was maybe a
couple of seals which cost $0.25 to make.  Boosters cost this much only
because the supplier's can get away with it.

Eldon was able to easily clean up the seals and put the booster back into
service.  I'm going to do the same thing to my spare booster when I get
time.  There's just *no way* I'm going to pay someone that much money to
simply clean and spray paint a booster.

This represents my opinion only (and probably Eldon's)... so if someone
doesn't feel comfortable or trust their mechanical abilities and their
repair judgement on such critical parts... by all means pay the $150.00.
Not me!  I'm p**sed off too.

Regards,

John
------------------------------------------------------------------------
jlandry@domain.elided             |
Conservative Libertarian        |  Scout(R) the America others pass by
Life Member of the NRA          | in the Scout Traveler escape-machine.
WA Arms Collectors              |
Commercial Helicopter - Inst.   | 1976 Scout II Traveler "Patriot" model
http://www.halcyon.com/jlandry/ |     1977 Scout II Traveler (Parts)