Thanks.

Well I talked to my machinist and he thinks it's a bad idea to shim it, so now I just need to decide whether to take a chance on an exchange and hope it's not the same, or get my old one ground. Either way, more waiting.

 

Send it back and have them measure the lengths before they dispatch you a new one, make sure the replacement is up to snuff..

 

Call them direct and ask to speak to the head of Quality Assurance. Tell him exactly what your problem is and ask him to resolve it for you. Any reputable company that makes anywhere near precision goods should be more than willing to fully replace a nonconforming part.

Ask him about tolerances if he does not offer immediate resolution. They should issue you a Return Material Authorization number as well as a prepaid shipping arrangement with whoever their shipper is (FedEx, UPS,whatever). Tell him you need a replacement immediately and see what response you get.

As a former Director of Quality Assurance, I guarantee you a solid company will have a solid policy about customer satisfaction when dealing with nonconforming products that do not fit. If it is their fault.

Just be straight forward with him and see what responses you get and be sure to update us.

 

Well I talked to a BP customer assistance guy who was helpful. He took two off the shelf and said they were the same length, and that no one else had made any complaints about others in the same batch. Unfortunately he had no way to accurately measure something that long, but he shipped out a new one immediately. He also gave me a return code, just in case the they're both the same. Should be here by Friday.

On another note, the cam gear seems to be of strange quality. It fits on much tighter, there were bits of casting material or something left in the corners, and the key is a bit too wide so that it actually chiseled out the keyway on my cam putting it on. It has a dark grey, slightly pitted, slightly uneven, but very smooth surface. They good part is it seems very hard. They key showed no signs of wear even after being hammered onto the cam, and it completely resisted my attempted grinding with a stainless steel wheel. My old one appears to be machined, instead of cast, and is more of a copper color.

 

On another note, the cam gear seems to be of strange quality. It fits on much tighter, there were bits of casting material or something left in the corners, and the key is a bit too wide so that it actually chiseled out the keyway on my cam putting it on. It has a dark grey, slightly pitted, slightly uneven, but very smooth surface. They good part is it seems very hard. They key showed no signs of wear even after being hammered onto the cam, and it completely resisted my attempted grinding with a stainless steel wheel. My old one appears to be machined, instead of cast, and is more of a copper color.
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I am not a metalurgist but have done a variety of Quality Assurance related work. For precision parts, it is common to take a rough casting and machine to final tolerances.

Pitting is not good, indicative of possible contaminants in the alloy? Variations in color may be a result of uneven heat treat.

The excess material is not very comforting unless it is in an area that has absolutely no effect.

Wonder who and where the part was originally made by. Minor variations may exist from piece to piece dependent upon process variables and the controls in place to monitor, detect, and correct variation.

Where the hell did a redneck learn all of that?

"Trust me, it will be all right," "What do you mean, it broke?" "Damn, not again"
"Well no one else has had that problem!" "Are you sure you didn't screw it up?"