I picked up my Westy from Russ at Autospiel in Victoria yesterday
- you may recall this is the one with a failed ring & pinion shortly
after a rebuild.

The first replacement R&P was defective (Russ found a very small
defect), so another was ordered and arrived from the US on
Thursday. The van was ready on Friday, after Russ took it for a
good long drive to ensure all was ok. It is now very quiet, as one
would expect. Total cost was $640 for the R&P + 60 for the R&P
nut and $30 for a gasket set, with labour at no cost - a goodwill
gesture from Autospiel. Although the total cost on this rebuild is
now about $1700CDN before taxes, I now know that I have a brand
new R&P, and have seen the other parts and they look good.

I would not hesitate to recommend Autospiel - I think he came
through in a difficult circumstance by fixing this at no labour cost,
which certainly cost him a considerable amount of time. I got the
feeling that he genuinely cared about getting this fixed right.

ps: I had him put in Pennzoil 80w90 GL5 due to lack of time - I
could have got Redline MT90, but am still considering the Amsoil
75w90 GL2 thru GL5 to provide the best possible protection for that
pricey ring&pinion gear.

Thanks again to all who offered advice.

Shawn Wright, I.T. Manager
Shawnigan Lake School
swright@SLS.bc.ca
http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright
http://www.sls.bc.ca