got screwed by local shop on my vx800!!!

[vx800 guy]

Just looing for some advise mabye on this situation. Brought my 91 vx800 to this local shop here in town cause their prices were half of the dealers And they cleaned the carbs, synced, supposedly put new clutch fibers in???????? and after i got it back it ran like ass and he tells me " after these bikes sit for a while it takes time to get the bugs out" so i drove it 5 miles gas was leaking out brought it back picked it up a week later ran good for 20-30 miles again then just wold not start. got sick of it brought it to the suzuki dealer and they said they must not of done any of what they said the needles and seats were shot which they should ve seen if they did the work. and now the clutch slips that A hole charged me over $300 and suzuki $ 450 what should i do?? and is there such thing as clutch fibers??

[artistic_gore]

I don't know what you should do. Maybe get a statement from the dealer on what they saw when they did the work on your bike then take the other shop to small claims court. Worth a shot I guess.

Yes there are clutch fibers (sort of). There are two types of disc in a motorcycle clutch, one is like the clutch on a car, with fiberous pads that grip metallic discs to transfer power from the crank shaft to the rear wheel.

The other discs are called steels, they are not quite smooth steel discs that fit between the fiberous discs.

Most of the time you just replace the fiberous discs and call it good, however, a full kit comes with fiberous discs, steels, and new clutch springs.

My biggest piece of advice would be to get a manual and learn to do your own work but I am aware that some people just can't do that.

Anyways, good luck to you.

[DrBob]

Getting documentation on the bad needles in the carbs is not going to help you much- the shop is just going to say you asked for the carbs to be cleaned and synced, not for the carbs to be rebuilt, so it is quite possible they cleaned the carbs without checking for worn parts.
The clutch is easy- there is a visual difference between worn out clutch plates and clutch plates with 35 miles on them, so it would be real easy to prove they did not do that work if they actually did not. But the slipping is not evidence that they did not replace the clutch plates, as slipping might have nothing to do with the clutch plates- the clutch springs could be worn, or you could simply have the wrong type of engine oil in the bike.
So while I feel bad for you, I doubt you will get anywhere bringing them to small claims court unless you pay someone to pull the clutch plates and you can prove they didn;t actually change them.

Where do you live? I bet someone on this site can recommend a good shop in your area.

[Clint]

Originally Posted by vx800 guy

...cause their prices were half of the dealers

Mmm-hmm. Yup.

Many of us no longer trust shops to work on our bikes. You'd have to pay me to take my machine to the cheapo in town.

Suck it up and do it right this time by getting a book and learning. We'll help. Best of luck.