CASE STUDY - LEAKING STEERING GEAR

Pete Moss (fictional name) has been running a small auto repair business at South Scipio Pass for over 15 years. Pete has made a good living, been extremely busy and developed a loyal customer base.

Pete's close friend and neighbor, Jim Shoe, has an older motor home which has developed a serious oil leak in the steering gear. Jim, of course, asked Pete to repair the steering gear problem at his business.

After inspection of the steering gear, Pete removes it from the motor home and disassembles it, finding all the seals hard and cracked as well as some of the busings badly worn.

Pete considers three possible repair options:

• Locate a repair kit and rebuild the gear from Jim. Pete, however, lacks some of the proper tooling and final test equipment and would be required to makeshift some of the repair . . . the possibility osf success is, however, fairly good.
• Locate a used gear from a wrecking yard. This option has several drawbacks, including the fact that this particular model of gear is rare and may be difficult to find as a used part. Also, this type of used part is often in questionable condition.
• Locate a factory-reconditioned steering gear. The drawback here is that this is an extremely expensive option.

With most of his customers Pete would suggest Option 3, the most expensive, his main reasoning being to reduce the liability issues should the gear itself fail at some point and be blamed for an accidents. (The factory could then share liability.)

Pete also considers that Jim is a good friend and wishes to save him some money. If it were Pete's motor home, he would definitely repair it himself.

1. What should Pete do? (It has been Pete's policy to call customers and discuss options and projected cost. Sometimes, however, depending upon the particular customer he does not discuss all possible options.)(