OP
malk315
Silver Member
Looked at this today to find:
Rob from Uppervalley advised all I needed was a socket to remove plugs... turns out you need to remove line from pump to injector for the front cylinder, the fitting that goes into the pump (and parts under spring tension can come out), and intake manifold for the other cylinders. I know this because I called Rick Wallace who looked at newer CK20S and older CK20 and told me CK20S you just remove the plugs and older CK20 requires the more extensive disassembly. Thanks for the info Rick.
If it really was just removing plugs, I'd tackle it, but I don't want to get into the fuel system related disassembly, intake, springs that come out of the rack and various other things that have to be removed given the plugs are buried making it impossible to get a socket on them. I don't want to risk introducing a fuel system problem.
- On the invoice it says under work to be done: remove and clean glow plugs
- It's obvious this wasn't done everything involved still completely dirty from normal dust from mowing -- there would be obvious evidence of all of the stuff that would have had to come off if the plugs were removed starting with spraying the threads on bus bar and plugs.
- Also obvious they didn't test starting it in the cold weather (machine was outside after the work done and below 20 degrees the days they had it -- if they tested it in the cold, the smart thing would have been to call me after filling their parking lot with smoke to tell me what's up and see about keeping it to fix the issue...)
In fairness to Upper Valley even though taking care of the glow plug problem was requested right on the invoice it doesn't look like they charged me for that work and didn't do the work... fine.
But it cost me more than 2 tanks of gas in the truck (rounded down to two tanks it's about $150 plus $685 for the work done and I bought a plug for $70.00 via mail thinking I could just install easily myself based info from Rob w/ 7mm wrench and 9mm socket).
Money spent: over $900
Time: 2 weekends of 1/2 day of hauling backing fourth each.
Glow issue solved: No.
It was made clear at the start there is a cold starting issue...
I would have much rather get the plugs replaced for a couple more labor hours / parts while the machine was there as it's going to cost me more now to haul it again...
In talking to Rick since changing plugs on pre CK20S tractors is a bit of work, he always does all 3. If Uppervalley made this recommendation to me I would have had them change all 3 even though only 1 is not functioning -- they are 9 years old w/ 6 years of use. With everything off to get one or more of them out, might as well change all 3.
Since the machine is stored inside for the winter and still functions I'll wait til after the mowing season to have someone fix it when it can be combined w/ regular service again.
Curious if you guys would be upset? I'm not happy about it... but I'm wondering what you guys think...
Unfortunately I can't state my overall experience was good...
Very happy with the work that was done, but unhappy the glow issue wasn't looked at when they had the machine. It's easy to ohm the plugs -- why didn't they do that? Why didn't they start it in the cold? Why didn't they execute what was requested on the invoice (remove and clean plugs is what Rob wrote on there -- they didn't do it or call me on that issue).
It it what it is... thought I'd share.
Rob from Uppervalley advised all I needed was a socket to remove plugs... turns out you need to remove line from pump to injector for the front cylinder, the fitting that goes into the pump (and parts under spring tension can come out), and intake manifold for the other cylinders. I know this because I called Rick Wallace who looked at newer CK20S and older CK20 and told me CK20S you just remove the plugs and older CK20 requires the more extensive disassembly. Thanks for the info Rick.
If it really was just removing plugs, I'd tackle it, but I don't want to get into the fuel system related disassembly, intake, springs that come out of the rack and various other things that have to be removed given the plugs are buried making it impossible to get a socket on them. I don't want to risk introducing a fuel system problem.
- On the invoice it says under work to be done: remove and clean glow plugs
- It's obvious this wasn't done everything involved still completely dirty from normal dust from mowing -- there would be obvious evidence of all of the stuff that would have had to come off if the plugs were removed starting with spraying the threads on bus bar and plugs.
- Also obvious they didn't test starting it in the cold weather (machine was outside after the work done and below 20 degrees the days they had it -- if they tested it in the cold, the smart thing would have been to call me after filling their parking lot with smoke to tell me what's up and see about keeping it to fix the issue...)
In fairness to Upper Valley even though taking care of the glow plug problem was requested right on the invoice it doesn't look like they charged me for that work and didn't do the work... fine.
But it cost me more than 2 tanks of gas in the truck (rounded down to two tanks it's about $150 plus $685 for the work done and I bought a plug for $70.00 via mail thinking I could just install easily myself based info from Rob w/ 7mm wrench and 9mm socket).
Money spent: over $900
Time: 2 weekends of 1/2 day of hauling backing fourth each.
Glow issue solved: No.
It was made clear at the start there is a cold starting issue...
I would have much rather get the plugs replaced for a couple more labor hours / parts while the machine was there as it's going to cost me more now to haul it again...
In talking to Rick since changing plugs on pre CK20S tractors is a bit of work, he always does all 3. If Uppervalley made this recommendation to me I would have had them change all 3 even though only 1 is not functioning -- they are 9 years old w/ 6 years of use. With everything off to get one or more of them out, might as well change all 3.
Since the machine is stored inside for the winter and still functions I'll wait til after the mowing season to have someone fix it when it can be combined w/ regular service again.
Curious if you guys would be upset? I'm not happy about it... but I'm wondering what you guys think...
Unfortunately I can't state my overall experience was good...
Very happy with the work that was done, but unhappy the glow issue wasn't looked at when they had the machine. It's easy to ohm the plugs -- why didn't they do that? Why didn't they start it in the cold? Why didn't they execute what was requested on the invoice (remove and clean plugs is what Rob wrote on there -- they didn't do it or call me on that issue).
It it what it is... thought I'd share.
