The Wonderful World of teleflex Morse

[Jonathan Kabak]

I am having some trouble with a frozen clutch on the morse MT-3 twin unit. Teleflex has recently purchased Morse and their assistance on the phone leaves something to be desired. They are still selling the MT-3 as the Teleflex Morse MT-3 but will not sell replacement parts. I am wondering if anyone has had problems with this unit or know of anyone stocking replacment parts for them.

Thanks in advance,

Jonathan

[Bob Cleek]

Whooo boy! you can sure say that again... I needed the little post clippies fitting that attaches the cable to whatever it gets attached to. (Can you tell I'm not much of a wrench?) Being in a hurry, I ordered the Teleflex-Morse "Universal installation kit" from WasteMarine for $54. That got me the two little ball-ended terminal posts and a couple of three inch long bet hunks of plated metal bracketing with some holes drilled in 'em. I found I only needed the posts and cable connectors, not the brackets. And I needed a third connector, I later found out. The post and connector runs $10. As usual, not wanting to drive down to WasteMarine, I figured I'd check with my buddy who has the Volvo Penta repair shop across the creek. He tells me Volvo Penta's labeled controls are the same as Teleflex-Morse and shows me his displays. Damned if you can't tell the difference, except for the label. Not only that, but Volvo's cables have teflon coatings or some such, so they have about a quarter the resistance that the Morse cables do. Now, here's the punch line... Teleflex wanted $10 for the post and cable connector thingie. Volvo's list price for the identical same item? Try $1.95! Try your local Volvo Penta dealer. They may have a Volvo unit that's identical and if so, I'll bet there will be replacement parts and at a whole lot more reasonable price!

[JimConlin]

You heard it here first folks!
Cheap Volvo parts! ;)

[Bob Cleek]

Yep, amazin' isn't it? If Volvo is charging so much less than Morse, imagine what it really costs 'em to make the damn things.

[Mr. Know It All]

It ain't the parts thats expensive. It's the "expert" advise thats expensive and usually worth it. It's the same at the hardware store where I live. A live person who can answer questions is worth a little more to me since I'm a do-it-yourself kinda guy. There's nothing quite as frustrating as knowing how to fix it and not being able to find parts.
Peace----> Kevin in Ohio

[Art Read]

Yup. We're all in the wrong business. Busted the drive belt on my power planer shaping my ballast keel the other day, (now THERE'S a pleasant pastime...) Not wanting to wait around around for a new one, I went to the first place in the yellow pages that had a replacement on hand. Ten bucks for a glorified rubber band? That's about a tenth of what I paid for the whole damn planer new! Ah well, I guess we're really paying for these folks to inventory all these little doo-dads for months, or years, just waiting for us to finally need 'em... (Wonder how much the replacement blades are gonna be once I'm done "mangling" 'em?)

[ 07-12-2002, 03:30 PM: Message edited by: Art Read ]