ERE
Silver Member
Yes, I would definitely recommend Conestoga but I'm not sure what they can do for anyone if there is a country (world?) wide shortage of the gears. I would recommend giving them a call first to see what the situation is. They were knowledgeable, friendly, and had reasonable rates. It cost me $189 for the repair, albiet with used gears.
As to the ultimate cause, I don't know how to factor in the information that other engine brands have the exact same problem. The folks at Conestoga said that they had assumed that it was simply a vibration problem causing failure over time. The pumps/gears, which are bolted to the engine just suffer fatigue fracture after so many cycles. I don't think those gears have enough stress on them to fail from fatigue unless they were faulty. Typically you need to have stress above a threshold level before a metal becomes subject to fatigue failure. The frustrating thing is that we have to "guess" based on the limited information we have.
As to the ultimate cause, I don't know how to factor in the information that other engine brands have the exact same problem. The folks at Conestoga said that they had assumed that it was simply a vibration problem causing failure over time. The pumps/gears, which are bolted to the engine just suffer fatigue fracture after so many cycles. I don't think those gears have enough stress on them to fail from fatigue unless they were faulty. Typically you need to have stress above a threshold level before a metal becomes subject to fatigue failure. The frustrating thing is that we have to "guess" based on the limited information we have.