PSA: South Mississippi Light Aircraft Refused Refund

Hi Rotax Owners,

I am here to bad-mouth a business because they have not done right by me. I sent off my carburetors to South Mississippi Light Aircraft for rebuild due to hitting 600 hours on the engine. SMLA is a Rotax iRMC, and Ronnie and Morris are both A&P and iRMT Heavy Maintenance, and Ronnie is also an RFSC instructor. One would think with those qualifications that they could be trusted to do the work well. This is, in fact, why I sent my carburetors there. They came highly recommended by some friends of mine.

When I sent the carbs off, I included a detailed work request letter, stating that there were service bulletins on the floats and to please evaluate the floats and the service bulletins as to whether replacement made sense. One concern was that the newest floats apparently haven't been completely trouble-free, or so I had heard. I also requested that the throttle shafts be replaced, as there was excessive wear and a relevant service bulletin on those from Vans.

I received a phone call within two weeks of sending the carburetors off that they were ready to go. I asked about the floats and the throttle shafts. It was clear that Ronnie had not really read the letter (maybe skimmed it at best), because he did not know why I was asking to have the shafts replaced, and it wasn't until I told him to go look at the shaft that he recognized there was actually damage to it. If he had read the document, this would have been obvious. He also argued that he wouldn't worry about the damage, despite three separate service bulletins from Vans involving this exact issue. I insisted that we replace the shafts. He said he wasn't sure how long that would take or what it would cost. I asked him to please just have a look and let me know. I get a call two hours later stating that the job is done. So somehow we have just gone from this being an un-heard-of issue to they had new shafts in stock? Odd.

A week later, I get the carbs back. I take them out of the box and immediately notice that one of the throttle plate valves is badly misaligned. One of the throttle shafts also has no lubrication at all, as it is supposed to, so the shaft on that carburetor did not rotate easily like the other one. At this point, my trust is blown and I won't have them work on my carbs again no matter what. So I decided to open the carbs up and have a look inside. I found multiple issues with their work.

See the photos:

1. Unusual wear pattern on the main carburetor pistons (both). This should have been alerted to me, as it is obvious something is wrong here. This wasn't the cause of a problem, but it was evidence of a problem I later found in my gearbox. These pistons also should be replaced IMO.

2. The housing also shows matching unusual wear, and this also should have been called out.

3. The Viton tip of the float needle is obviously not that of a brand new float needle. The sprung pin in the back was also jammed and had lost all springiness.

4. The diaphragm was bonded to the flange of the carburetor piston with a dried out substance. It had to be peeled off and obviously had not been replaced.

5. The idle jet was badly corroded and should have been replaced.

6 and up. The carburetor floats were visibly damaged and should have been replaced.

They are refusing a refund and are denying that they did this, even after I sent them pictures. They told me that the only way they will speak to me again is through their lawyer.

I guess I'm out $750 bucks. Don't let it happen to you, take your carbs and gearboxes somewhere else!