These are pictures of an original muffler off one of my Isetta's. As you can see in the last photo, it's probably time to replace them. Both of my Isetta's have the old style header pipe without a heat exchanger. Unfortunately both of my Isetta's are also missing the under seat heaters meant to work with this style of header pipe. I've been trying to find under seat heaters for my cars but so far have been unsuccessful. I've seen a few on ebay over the years, but they're either in horrible shape or I've been outbid on them. If anybody happens to have one available, please contact me because I'm still looking for two of them. Anyways back around the end of 2009, since I had been unsuccessful at finding a heater, I decided to purchase a stainless steel muffler and heat exchanger from Group Harrington. Harrington is a British owned company manufacturing their parts in Vietnam. At the time I purchased these, it was close to $500.00 for the pair with shipping. Quite a substantial bit of money for me.
The photos on Harrington's website and on their ebay auctions show a muffler with the correct hanger and mounting brackets. The above photo shows the muffler I received from Harrington. You can see the hanger bracket is missing and the mounting brackets are incorrect. The hanger bracket serves an important function in addition to facilitating installation of the muffler. It also prevents the muffler from dropping to the ground and wrapping it's self around your rear axle in the event of a hanger strap failure. I contacted Harrington by email with a photo of the muffler I received. About a week later, I received an email stating I should take the muffler to a metal shop and have them bend the brackets. Not exactly the response I was hoping for.
Had I only ordered a muffler, I would probably not have been so upset because it's a relative easy fix for me, but the heat exchanger I ordered with the muffler had far more serious issues. The heat exchanger I received was so poorly made it was basically unusable. The result was I ended up having to use the "old style" header pipe that came with the muffler instead of the heat exchanger I ordered with the muffler. I might also mention that the bend on the header pipe that came with the muffler was not even remotely close to being where it needed to be to connect with the muffler. It was at least 8" off where it needed to be to connect to the muffler.
This is the heat exchanger I received from Group Harrington. You might say that doesn't look so bad. Well, lets have a little closer look.
The biggest problem with the heat exchanger is this flange that mounts to the cylinder head. You can see that this flange is welded to the exhaust pipe crooked. Tightening the flange to the cylinder head caused the heat exchange box to be so crooked, it hit the air filter canister box before I could completely tighten it to the cylinder head. I'm actually getting a little ahead of myself though. Before I could even try to tighten the cylinder head nuts, there were other problems.
This is a view of the same flange from the side. In this photo, I've already cut about an inch off of the exhaust tube that extends past the flange and inserts into the cylinder head. The reason I had to do that was that the bend in the tube continued past the flange, and was severe enough that that it would not insert into the cylinder head.
Here's another view of this flange. The holes are huge compared to the holes in an original header pipe. Even as big as these holes are, the flange barely fits on the studs of the cylinder head. If I had been able to use the heat exchanger, I probably would have done some filing on the holes to get a little better fit. In addition to the crooked flange, the heater control flap was very crude and hard to operate, the heater box did not align correctly with the engine cooling shroud, and the bend of the pipe to connect to the muffler was incorrect (although not as bad as the header pipe that came with the muffler). When I contacted Harrington by email with photos of the problems with this heat exhanger, I never received a reply. In the end, I'm stuck with a useless heat exchanger. I regret buying this muffler and heat exchanger from Harrington. They were poorly manufactured and their customer service was dismal. Needless to say, I probably won't be placing any more orders for Isetta parts from Harrington.
I got som problem with the finish too. I ordered a "Isetta sunroof" The lining did not fit an the bow was too short. This was bad. I have used Oltimerteile.net later. It was premium quality.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I've always been happy with my purchases from Oldtimerteile.
ReplyDeleteI heard they were a great source for Isetta parts so I tried to purchase from Oldtimerteile.net but they were very rude. My computer skills aren't the best but I tried to work with them and they got insulting. I don't understand. They take my order and I pay on Paypal then they try to make me buy more than I ordered and want more money. When I tell them I only want what I paid for they refund my money with no explanation. They have a fine selection but who needs the hassle?
ReplyDeleteI purchased a stainless grab bar from Harrington and the ends were off center in two different directions. It could be forced to fit. Being made in Vietnam perhaps their standards aren't where they should be yet. I'd be afraid to purchase their alloy bodied electric Isetta clone until they improved their quality control. Too bad because with a little effort their products could be great.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. It's unfortunate you had the experience you did trying to purchase from Oldtimerteile. I have had some minor translation problems when trying to ask questions about items, but overall I have been happy with the service and most important, the quality of the parts that I've ordered from Oldtimerteile. I would be interested in hearing more specifics about your attempted order, like what were you trying to order, and what were they trying to add to your order? There is a positive side to your experience, at least you got a refund. I got nothing but a piece of junk heat exchange from Harrington. No reply to my emails, no refund, just a poorly made product that is not even usable.
ReplyDeleteToo bad about your being stiffed by Harringtons like that. I wont buy anything else from them.
ReplyDeleteI read that some bought bad stuff from Claudio but so far I've had good luck with him though I am careful what I buy.
As far as the Schapers go I'm not going to try to purchase any thing from them for a while. The first order they sent me no purchase amount but gave me their PaypaI info. It looked like an email address so I sent an email to that address. When nothing happened I wrote them explaining my confusion. Instead of explaining how the process worked they told me to stop crying. I told them I didn't appreciate comments like that and they got much ruder very fast. I explained that every previous Paypal transaction was automatically linked from the sellers site and that I was unfamiliar how to process their Paypal info. They chose not to help me.
I called Paypal customer support and they explained the procedure so I guesstimated the amount the Schapers would need and sent them a Paypal payment which they immediately refunded. I wrote them again but they ignored me. I waited a while and made a 2nd order and the same thing happened so I waited and made a 3rd and last attempt but ordering only 3 things which they accepted the Paypal payment for but conditioned the sale on my purchasing the previous 2 orders they had rejected. Since those orders I had purchased those parts from other suppliers but they said I had to buy all or nothing. I said I wanted the 3 parts I paid for and if they looked good I might order something else. They waited a few days and refunded my money without comment. I don't want to stereotype but the Schapers operate a substantial business and being German they probably do it with precision and don't like those ignorant Americans who stumble along like me. Trying to find a way through our misunderstanding I wrote them a letter explaining my limited computer experience and apologized for anything I may have said that caused irritation but they didn't reply. They don't have anything I absolutely must have but it would have been nice to get stuff from them just the same. There is a lot of anti USA sentiment in the World today. Perhaps that's all it was.
How about the Pilot from South America that restores and sells Isetta parts? Is he still in business? I heard only good things about him.
I just wanted to add that I have learned how to adjust my shifter linkage rods from an article from this great website. My Isetta shifts much easier now.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone dealt with Isetta-teile.de? If so was your experience a good one?
ReplyDeleteThere are two parts suppliers in Germany that I have never ordered from. Isetta-teile.de and Isetta-service.de. The main reason I have never tried ordering parts from either of these two is they don't appear to accept payment with paypal. My bank is a rip-off when it comes to doing wire transfers, so for me, when placing an international order, it is much easier to deal with a merchant that accepts paypal.
ReplyDeleteDo you think it would be risky calling them to place an order and giving them my visa card info?
ReplyDeleteNicht, wenn Sie Deutsch sprechen
ReplyDeleteI can just make out that you can't speak German. What if one of them speaks English well enough, then would you feel safe leaving your Visa info?
ReplyDeleteThe comments above really take the fun out of working on the cars... I've ordred about everything I've needed from Isettas "R" Us (Werner Schwark) out of Kennesaw, Georgia and couldn't be happier. He's always willing to answer my questions and is quick to have my order sent out. You can look at his parts catalog on line and/or call him for those odd parts needed. His phone number is (770)924-1140
ReplyDeleteHope this helps,
Jim Carlin (Arizona)
I have had nothing but good service from Oldtimer, and the option of an English language user friendly website a real help. How many English speaking operations would do the same? And someone there has good enough English to type me a letter and invoice. So far, so good for me.
ReplyDelete