A VERY UNPLEASANT ANNOUNCMENT TO MAKE

[Agnem]

There is diffculty in the Moose Valley.

Due to an economic slump, personal situations and other factors, my pump guy has had to leave the authorized Stanadyne shop that turns out the Moose products for me. He now has another job in a completely different field, and may or may not have time to continue the Moose program. I have been leaving messages for him on his cell, but he has not returned my calls. I was going to try to wait until I had a chance to talk to him before making this announcement, but I continue to field requests for product and with a large degree of uncertainty in the air I feel it may be best to explain this situation, even if it causes a loss of interest. This shop was a 2 man operation. It is now a 1 man operation who is the owner. The owner has indicated to me that he wants to continue to be able to provide our beloved Moose items. He can handle injectors and even a standard pump rebuild. But the problem is, the man who left the company is the only one who really knows how to calibrate the Moose Pump. You guys have heard me harp on this before... the calibration is as much art as it is science. The artist cannot teach the art! The hope at this point, since the parting was on good terms, is that perhaps the owner can do the rebuilding and the Moose pump god can just come in to do the calibration on a Saturday, or something like that. But what this definitely means is that turn around time for Moose products is now probably now around a month. Either that, or the program is dead. Not sure at this point, but we will all have to cross our fingers that some assemblance of order can be preserved.

 

[icanfixall]

What a kick in the nuts this is. Screw this economy.... This is really tuff news Mel.. Truely a sad day today has become. But lets all look on the bright side... If we never get another Moose pump at least we had one even if it was for one brief moment..... At least we had one. Mel... I can wait for a pump no matter how long it takes. I'm a continued supporter of what you have done for all of us here. Heres hopeing things will work out for the best....

 

[Diesile]

x2. I was and still am ready to do this turbo pump. I'll use others while I wait.

Keep us updated Mel so we know when and what to do.

 

[SparkandFire]

That's terrible Mel! This is the really tough thing about keeping our common love of these older trucks alive, the system that exists to support us is very sparse. Just the fact that U-haul recently off-loaded all their IDI parts is a bad omen. ATS and Banks have been flushing their IDI stuff down the drain for some time now. I fear that more and more common things will be become harder to find. I had a friend with a really nice old 60's era Chrysler New Yorker that he couldn't drive because no one made brake drums for it anymore...

We all really apreciate the effort you've put into the Moose product development and support. Hopefully things fall into place and we are still able to get some support from your pump guy in the future. If not, perhaps the door will be opened to someone else at your facility to hone their pump tuning skills... Either way, we all understand.

 

[hesutton]

Dang! That really is too bad Mel. What a great product you both had going. I was hoping Joel would be able to go through my P-pump for the DT466 before bolting it on. I was also hoping to get a Moose IP and Injectors down the road for the crew cab as well. I knew I should have bought one at the Rally.

I hope things work out and the Moose pump and injectors live on.

Heath

 

[Dsl_Dog_Treat]

Wow!!!
That's gonna leave a mark.

 

[biggin92]

Yup ....... it's official i have no reason to live. :***:
.......... Well mel i hope it works out for you , and us.. I should have bought one when i had the chance. I don't want to rely on the guys at dps

 

[Agnem]

Well guess we will have to wait and see. Some availability would be better than none. But like I said, I have not spoken to everyone involved yet, so I don't know what's gonna happen. 50 pumps are out there. It would be a shame if that was the end of it.

In case anyone of you who have sent me money and cores... fear not. I WILL be able to fill existing orders, and 2 sets of Moose Misters have arrived. I'll be contacting you soon.

 

[towcat]

I had a friend with a really nice old 60's era Chrysler New Yorker that he couldn't drive because no one made brake drums for it anymore...

that's b.s. on your friend's part. he's not willing to make the changes to the later model parts. Cubans have gotten very creative with their 50's american cars for years. the big V-8 is long gone and in place is a Zil 4 cyl diesel, bt the chrome hulk still lumbers down the road.

 

[Dieselcrawler]

I knew I should have bought one at the Rally Heath

Ditto

 

[94f450sd]

That's terrible Mel! This is the really tough thing about keeping our common love of these older trucks alive, the system that exists to support us is very sparse. Just the fact that U-haul recently off-loaded all their IDI parts is a bad omen. ATS and Banks have been flushing their IDI stuff down the drain for some time now. I fear that more and more common things will be become harder to find. I had a friend with a really nice old 60's era Chrysler New Yorker that he couldn't drive because no one made brake drums for it anymore...

.

sorry to hear this mel and please dont take what im about say the wrong way.it really doesnt surprise me.within a year i bet that shop closes its doors.

its not really the economys fault.these are almost 20 year old vehicles and some over 20 years old.there isnt as much demand for parts for them like there was 7 or 8 years ago.i dont see many IDIs like i used to.the companies making the parts arent making any money of them anymore.in a few years you wont be able to get anything for them.

 

[gatorman21218]

With enough ingenuity in this site surely we can keep em running for a long time

 

[6.9poweredscout]

looks like we need a machine shop to start tooling parts to install an inline pump....

 

[GRU]

looks like we need a machine shop to start tooling parts to install an inline pump....

you just dont know how bad i want to try that!! and i happen to be a machinist...

 

[redmondjp]

With enough ingenuity in this site surely we can keep em running for a long time

Well, it's nice to think that, but as was probably the case in this situation, people's economic conditions can often foil even the best-laid plans.

I am thinking of a local shop here in the Seattle area which closed a few years back called Diesel Injection Service Co. (I think) which operated out of an old gas station for decades in North Seattle. The founder's son was running it when it closed (sometime in the mid-2000s, I went there a few times for their going-out-of-business sale). It was really sad to see (I had both a 1981 Rabbit diesel and a 1981 Datsun 720 diesel at the time), but the property owner wanted to sell the site for redevelopment (this was before the real estate bubble popped) and wanted him out of there.

They had everything, the gigantic injector pump test systems (truly amazing pieces of equipment if you ever get the chance to see one) for various makes of IPs, you name it, they could fix or rebuild it. I would have enjoyed taking over and running a shop like this, but insufficient cash flow can wipe you out in short order, no matter how much you love doing something.

Now a savior in this kind of situation is somebody who has the free time and the wealth to set up such a shop and run it more as a hobby operation on one's own property, such that one doesn't have to worry about making payroll or rent every month. There are many such individuals who are passionate about their particular chosen vehicle or hobby who do just this on various internet message boards (you know who you are, thanks!), and many also have day jobs as well!

I bought a 1969 Cadillac Ambulance while in college in 1985, and you could still get parts for it fairly easily (the rear end in the commercial chassis was used by Cadillac way back into the early 1950s). By the time I sold it in 1995, some parts were unobtanium (rear axle bearings, brake parts, etc) and that factored into my decision to sell it.

Companies that sell auto parts are mostly run by bean-counters just like every other company. When a certain part number is no longer profitable, it goes bye-bye. Nowadays, the step before this happens is that the tooling gets shipped to some third-world country where they continue to crank out the parts (of questionable quality and materials in some cases) until the demand fails to meet their threshold. This has been going on for some time now - I remember replacing the engine mounts on an old lady's 1967 Coronet back in the early 1990s, and one mount was made in India, while the other was from Poland!

Sorry for the long, rambling post. I am hopeful that we can continue to get these pumps, as I have a brother and another friend who both have 1990 7.3 IDIs who are looking to gain more power.