So about 15 years ago we bought a used forklift, sometime around 12 of 02' the headgasket blew. We sent off to Shouthline to have it replaced and rented, 3 days turned into 3 weeks and when they returned it it wouldn't even make it off the tow truck. I told the driver to put it back on and called the service manager to say that no work had been preformed. He apologized and said he would have it fixed, it came back a few days later and still ran like crap. So I told my boss that I would replace the headgasket myself and did. I replaced the headgasket sent it to the machine shop and had the head decked, pressure checked, valve job and new seals installed. Reinstalled it along with a tune up and new timing belt. This work was completed 1/8/03
Flash forward to about 3 months ago we had a leak in the inching brake and regular brake and they suggested that they take it into the shop pressure wash the engine compartment and make the repairs $400 for the cleaning and pickup and drop off (which is a good deal) and we paid to have the brakes fixed. When we got it back it ran like crap. Well a year earlier it had started running rough and I checked voltage at the ballast resistor and was at 9V so I added a relay and used the ignition wire to turn on the relay and ran 12 gauge wire from the battery to the relay then to the ballast resistor. The 12 gauge wire was burned up but somehow the 20 amp fuse wasn't burned, I replaced the whole assembly again. The engine ran like crap was hard to start and was just a PITA after we get it back. It acted as though the timing was off and I checked everything I could think of and didn't really have time to mess with it. So the other day when I get back from a trip out of town they tell me it won't run and I run through all kinds of things plugs (fouled) cap and rotor (replaced 6 months earlier). I had a really strong odor of propane so I checked the vaporizer and bought a new rebuild kit for it, cleaned it up and installed it. It still won't run properly it missed and sputtered and just something was off. So after I put new plugs in I was still having issues and had to remove the stud that holds the distributor down to advance the timing enough to get it to run.
This morning I tear into it and sure enough the belt is in really good shape, but is off by about 1-2 teeth. I reset the cam timing and still have to move the distributor past full advance to get it to run. I ended up re stabbing the dist. a tooth off to get it back in range. I put the stud back in place and line up my marks that I had made last time I set timing and the engine fires right up idles like a champ. I got everything put back together and drive it around and it runs like great can't expect more.
Now what gets me is when I started going through the file we have on it I realize that this is the same company that screwed us last time. On their latest invoice for the cleaning and inspection they mention that it needs he valve timing adjusted. That catches me as funny as how are you going to know that without taking the engine down to a level where you can actually check it?
There is no way possible for the distributor to move a tooth over AND for the belt to move a tooth just enough for it to run without someone else intervening.
Needless to say Southline is NEVER getting business from us again.
Also I am not a forklift mechanic.
Jeff
