Mike's brushes

Hey guys,

So I bought new brushes from MikesXS and am a little puzzled by their assembly...
Here's a pic from mike's:


Notice how they're an identical pair. Also notice where the brown fiber board thingy is in the assembly.

One of mine was like the one pictured and went right in no problem the same way the old ones had gone in.
The second one in the pair, however, I received looked like this:

and would not go in the same way as the other.

Notice on that one that the fiber board is between the brush and the spring, instead of being between the spring and the mounting part.

I contacted MikesXS and they said I was stupid and to refer to my manual. My factory manual has no pictures of the assembly, no mention of there being one brush for positive and one negative. It may be the case that I'm an idiot as this is my first brush change!

What's going on here?

Thanks,
Lucky

Mikes is putting out trash components and won't take responsibility.
Eventually they will offer to give you credit if you ship back on your dime.
My best suggestion is to melt the solder position pieces in the correct order and re-solder.
And THANKS for the heads up. Won't be ordering brushes from them. Another on the list of stay away from items.

You have one that was assembled wrong mike is wrong and should replace. The price is outrageously high. The original mike sold them for $2.00

I sent them photos of the funky brush and they keep just writing back saying I'm just confused about how they should be installed...Really not helpful! It's like they're not looking at the pictures.

I just want a working brush. So annoying!

You can try to thread the spring thru the fibre board. Like putting a key on a key fob...

luckynumber0 said:

I sent them photos of the funky brush and they keep just writing back saying I'm just confused about how they should be installed...Really not helpful! It's like they're not looking at the pictures.

I just want a working brush. So annoying!

Click to expand...

I feel your pain.
http://www.xs650.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25785&highlight=mikes+snap+ring+pliers

If you have a soldering iron just unsolder it and arrange the pieces in the right order and resolder.
While you have it unsoldered, drill a small holes in the metal where the solder is. Now with all the parts in the right order slide to wire in the hole from the under side and solder it back. This way you won't have to wrap the wire around the metal mount strip.
While you are doing the soldering do both new brushes.
It makes installing the brushes very easy.
Another thing you can do is take your old brush to a good hardware store or find a place that repairs electrical tools. Get a set of brushes that are the same size square as your old brush, or even slightly bigger. They are easy to sand down to the right size.
You can get them for maybe $5 each. They come with the brush and just the spring, no mount strap.
Once you get them home, Unsolder the old brushes from the old mount straps. Drill holes, Unsolder the small piece of copper of the new brush. Thread on the fiber rectangle, solder to the mount strap.
A few years back I picked up a couple set of brushes from Sears Hardware. A bit of fitting and soldering and I have a couple sets of replacements for I think its was $4.75 per brush.
With a bit of shopping you might even find brushes like I talk about online. I have not looked so I can't post links.
Leo

I feel able to fix it, it's just the principle of the thing.

I care so much about the work I do on this bike. I care a lot about the bike.

It sucks to buy parts from someone whose attitude toward a defective part - maybe an honest mistake - is so crappy.

Thanks for the tip Leo. Making my own sounds more fun anyway.

Mike's changed hands a few years ago. The new owners claimed to be bike enthusiasts and promised to improve the products and the selection. It was all bullshit. They're just businessmen out to make a buck. That fact was proven by their first act as the new owners - they raised all the prices, lol. Same shit products, you just pay more for them now.

They're sending me a new one! No return necessary. Only took four emails back and forth Like this:
Me: "Hey man this is broken"
Mike: "No it isn't, you just don't know how to install them."
Me: "No it's broken. Look at the picture"
Mike: "No it's not, you just don't know how to install them."
Me: "Please mate just look at the picture for like one second."
Mike: "Oh. Ok yeah. Here's a new one."

In their defence I bet they get about a gazillion emails from guys that DON"T KNOW HOW TO INSTALL the brushes. We all take them apart the first time, paying little attention, and have a real head scratcher about that oddball wind the wire over the phenolic trick. I think like you said they just were blowing you off assuming that was the issue. The guys are continuously enlarging the product selection if not always the quality LOL.

The name of the shop is an unfortunate thing, since "Mike Legrande" is no longer the retailer, and the inevitable and regrettable confusion with Mike Morse.