Great Customer Service

called Walter's machine company in hopes that they did'nt remember me, these guys manufacture v-drives for CC and MC and many other boats, anyways I called to order a seal and gasket kit and
u-joints and the next thing they asked was what about bearings, i told them that I buy them locally, there was a pause and then he said to me why dont you buy the other parts you need locally and then hung up on me. Ive had nothing but problems over the years with those guy's. at one time they even told me that all thier bearings are specially made for thier v-drives and I fell for it and paid
the price...... needed to whine a little this morning

Eric;when you get rich and your clients are CC and MC and you dont need your phone to ring to a$$ure you a "draw" at the end of the week,you too can just hang up.
so good to talk to you last nite,something about LOCATION,LOCATION,LOCATION...........
what about my RULE;ATTITUDE ATTITUDE and above all else ATTITUDE

Be nice to the janitor;one day he could be your BOSS

Munday, do you know frankie over at frankies marine?... good guy, has alot of outboard stuff.
yeah they are rotten over there at walters, pretty soon they will be a transmission from the past, they still use u-joints in tha angle housing and guess where the weak link is? zf hurth is now manufacturing a v-drive and it uses synthetic oil and they claim you never have to service it and i believe that they accomplish the v-drive with gears instead of u-joints

Eric,

I'll bet Walter Machine remembers you since they try their best to make sure that the correct quality FACTORY ORIGINAL parts go back into their V-Drives when they are "rebuilt" in the field.

Unfortunately there are too many backyard mechanics who charge a lot of $ for doing what they call a "rebuild" and then reinstall the old bearings or used parts or -- worse yet -- put in the wrong cheap bearings made in China and elsewhere. The "rebuild" turns into 99% labor (PROFIT) and 1% parts.

Of course the boat owner never knows and when the substandard part fails, then Walters gets blamed.

I'm sure you are well educated in bearing nomenclature and realize that the bearing manufacturers don't stamp the performance codes on the bearings (which controls how the races are honed, and the tolerances on the outside diameter, inside diameter and width) which has a great impact on the life of the bearing. You also realize that the same numbered ball bearing (example "6206") can be sourced from different manufacturers with everything from plastic cages to machined bronze cages and in various tolerances on OD, ID and width and internal preload.

And of course you understand the severe duty life in marine use. I've been told that Walter Machine has to place orders for their bearings 30 to 60 WEEKS in advance with the bearing manufacturers. Hey, if you prefer to buy foreign transmissions (ZF owns something like 40 factories in China), go right ahead, you'll just L-O-V-E the cost of replacment parts. Walters must be doing something right since they've been around for more than 75 years and make everything in the good old USA.

Wake up America, BUY AMERICAN or learn Chinese !!!!

DonC wrote: I'm sure you are well educated in bearing nomenclature and realize that the bearing manufacturers don't stamp the performance codes on the bearings (which controls how the races are honed, and the tolerances on the outside diameter, inside diameter and width) which has a great impact on the life of the bearing. You also realize that the same numbered ball bearing (example "6206") can be sourced from different manufacturers with everything from plastic cages to machined bronze cages and in various tolerances on OD, ID and width and internal preload. And of course you understand the severe duty life in marine use. I've been told that Walter Machine has to place orders for their bearings 30 to 60 WEEKS in advance with the bearing manufacturers.

wow that's the biggist bunch of horse *************** I've heard all day, bearings with a lead time of over 6 months, hell we can get custom spec'd bearings for a jet engine in fraction of the time you quote. Sounds like your a walter rep to me.

hell spec the number and choose the class and then go have them pulled off the self at bearing Inc been there done that all to often on several R&D one off projects over the years.

he works for Walters, its sweat time cause PCM replaced the Walter's with they're own version of a v-drive called the ski-vee, no maintanace, 2 europeon cut bevel gears, very simple, very Quiet, very reliable
Once again in my 25 years in the service business, that was one of the most dis-appointing calls i ever made.
My warranty on my overhauls covers the bearings i prefer to use not yours.......

Eric, This is copied and pasted from the Walters web site:

"Reputation for Service
Walter Machine's commitment to service began in 1927. We understand your need to keep downtime to an absolute minimum. That's why Walter Gear Drives are built to withstand punishment which would cause other brands to quit. That's why Walter products are designed with "ease of repair" in mind. That's why we maintain a huge parts inventory for prompt shipment. That's why our customers keep coming back year after year, application after application !"

Sounds like a bunch of BS!!! I thought you'd get a kick out of it! I'm sure you'll be going back "year after year".

There's also a thread over on Planet Nautique regarding a Walters. Big problems with no teeth left on one of the gears. Seems there is a tooth hardness (or lack of) issue.

Don Chaternuck from Walter machines quoted me U$D2350 for a V-drive unit a few months ago, I felt it was quite high priced since a whole V-drive/transmission package from PCM is just that price.
Also, the PCM is lighter and easier to service.

79 Nautique wrote "bearings with a lead time of over 6 months, hell we can get custom spec'd bearings for a jet engine in fraction of the time you quote. hell spec the number and choose the class and then go have them pulled off the self at bearing Inc."

79 Nautique, I hate to say it but you are 100% dead wrong. You can try to get 'em at Bearing Inc. but they don't have them, Motion doesn't have them, Kaman doesn't have them -- and guess what? The performance codes aren't even stamped on the bearings in the Walters so how would you know which ones to ask for? I'd suggest you also check things out before you say they're overcharing: go ahead and price the bearings out at Walters and you'll see they're no more expensive than the standard low grade ones stocked at the bearing houses. Walters is just trying to make sure the CORRECT bearing goes into the gearbox for the good of the boat owner, period. Unfortunately the guys doing the repairs just care about making $ and not putting in OEM quality parts.

Eric Lavine -- That is some bad mouthing for sure !! Don't worry, Walters is not going anywhere. You can rant and rave about how good European/Chinese made stuff is but we'll see what happens in a year or two. My money buys AMERICAN whenever possible. You can keep buying foreign made stuff and one day you'll wake up to find you don't have any customers 'cause they don't have jobs. All I know is that if Walters wasn't doing something right they wouldn't be around this long.

8122pbrainard: I'd suggest you get on the phone and tell GM, Toyota, Ford, John Deere, Mack Truck, Caterpillar, etc..., that u-joints don't work. There are millions and millions and millions in service throughout the world but according to you they're no good. That's just poppy-cock.

DonC-
This is not really about the bearings. Why would you not sell him the parts he needs and let him worry about how many customers he has in the future.

This thread was really started because of poor customer service. Even if you do not agree with what he is doing, did he deserve to be treated like that on the phone? I think not.

Slow down there, dude. You seem to be making quite a few mistakes...

DonC wrote: go ahead and price the bearings out at Walters and you'll see they're no more expensive than the standard low grade ones stocked at the bearing houses.

Um... Seems to me you just contradicted yourself?

pwningjr wrote: Slow down there, dude. You seem to be making quite a few mistakes... DonC wrote: go ahead and price the bearings out at Walters and you'll see they're no more expensive than the standard low grade ones stocked at the bearing houses. Um... Seems to me you just contradicted yourself?

No contradtion at all; Walters sells the premium grade bearings at the same price (or less) than the low grade ones stocked at the bearing houses. Obviously a lot of guys on this thread seem to believe that a "6306" bearing is the same as any other "6306" bearing but that's just not the case. Some are made in the US, some in Japan, some in China; the tolerances for the width of the bearing, the outside diameter and the inside diameter are ALL different from different manufacturers.

I think it would help things along, only for the sake Of Walter's machine company, to re-evaluate your customer service policies, I dont have enough fingers on my hands to count the negative responses after speaking with people accross this country when dealing with your company...me I could care less anymore, I was truly shocked, bad publicity travels 10 fold

DonC wrote: pwningjr wrote: Slow down there, dude. You seem to be making quite a few mistakes... DonC wrote: go ahead and price the bearings out at Walters and you'll see they're no more expensive than the standard low grade ones stocked at the bearing houses. Um... Seems to me you just contradicted yourself? No contradtion at all; Walters sells the premium grade bearings at the same price (or less) than the low grade ones stocked at the bearing houses. Obviously a lot of guys on this thread seem to believe that a "6306" bearing is the same as any other "6306" bearing but that's just not the case. Some are made in the US, some in Japan, some in China; the tolerances for the width of the bearing, the outside diameter and the inside diameter are ALL different from different manufacturers.

they are all the same there is one key point you miss d*ck,

that is the CLASS of the bearing.

"6306" is the basic size of the bearing, the class 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 determinds the tolerances of the bearing so if you walk into the bearig store and ask for a class 4 6306 bearing you'll have a better bearing than what walter used in the first place. So are you Done DON trying to blow smoke up everyones azz because I know what the hell I'm takling about pick up a bearing book it's all there in black and white dumb azz and it doesn't F in matter if it's NTN, Tomken or any other bearing manufactures they are all standardized and manufacured to the same specs, now if you don't specify the class then your going to get the cheapest, sloppy fitting bearing around duche bag.

From Walters site:

"Walter Machine's commitment to it's customers and to service began in 1927. We understand your need to keep downtime to an absolute minimum. That's why Walter Gear Drives are built to withstand punishment which would cause other brands to quit. That's why Walter products are designed with "ease of repair" in mind. That's why we maintain a large parts inventory for prompt shipment. That's why our customers keep coming back year after year, application after application."

Never answered:
"year after year" Why did Correct Craft stop?!!!

"ease of repair"? Too bad Eric couldn't get the "special" bearings!!!

Why is "ease of repair" quoted in the Walters statement?