(was) Very disappointed in Mancini Racing

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blackhand

blackhand

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Spent the day installing a set of brand new Mancini XHD springs as well as their "Mancini brand" spring shackles. The install was going great and the driver side spring was in place, I was just snugging the last nut when one of the rear shackle bolts sheared right off! I couldn't believe it, I hadn't even dropped the car to tighten it all up yet! If this had happened on the road this could have caused some serious damage to my car and possibly even an accident. This may just be an isolated incident but in my opinion that's a serious safety issue and I will not be giving the Mancini shackles another try. My old shackles didn't look as bad as I thought they were once I got them off, so I went ahead and re-installed them. It's sad that I trust my 44 year old shackles more than the brand new Mancini shackles.

Next I went to install the passenger side spring. The first thing that I noticed was that the rear spring eye seemed a little bit bigger than the driver side spring but I thought it was just my imagination. I bolted the spring up into the hangers and began lowering the axle onto it. When the axle pad got close enough to the spring I could see that the spring stud was a solid two inches to the rear of the hole in the pad! That's when I connected the dots... Mancini had sent me one A-body spring and one B-body spring. :banghead:

I'll have to give them a call on Monday and hope that they can ship me the correct spring ASAP. I have no idea when I'll have time to ship this b-body spring back to them but it's going to be a pain in the *** and I really don't want to wait for them to receive it before sending me the correct spring. Thanks Mancini for wasting my Saturday!
 
Yeah but so much new stuff is made so cheap now, Mancini is trying to have good prices and decent quality, guess they blew it with the bolts--what is wrong with the shackles--why not just get some good 8 grade bolts and nuts for them?

Not sure about that spring mix up--that is sad. Even if they shipped and accepted a return from somebody who played a switchover on Mancini, they should had been extra sure those springs were right before shipping them across the country.

Those boys are just 30--40 mins away from me, oh well little good that does you.

Let us know for sure what Manici says and does, last I knew their customer service was OK
 
Lets see how they handle it before we hammer on um real hard. I've heard nothing but good things about them for years. Had good experiences too.
 
funny i just had a bad experience with Mancini last week as well. First in 10 years, although I am not a big buyer. I ordered the calvert u-bolts that are specific to the monoleaf spring. They are a gold anodized and have them pictured in there flyer. I went thru them instead of Calvert because they are closer to the east coast and would reach me before the weekend. What I got was stock u-bolts. Don't work for this application, I had stock length u-bolts. I called them and the gentleman kept trying to play it off as It was my mistake. He then told me they don't have them. I said there in your flyer, and he said well they have them dropp shipped from Calvert and don't stock them. I asked him why the other gentleman told me that was what I was getting, and he went quiet. He never offered to ship out the proper u-bolts. I was pissed, I called Calvert and had them sent, screwed my weekend up as well for putting it together. I believe I am done with Mancini for awhile. Hammer fell...
 
I got my shackles from them last year. They seem fine, though I haven't driven on them yet. I wonder if they make them, or some supplier sells through them? Did you use an air ratchet or did you snap it by hand? How much torque? Way to ruin a weekend!
 
Blackhand, yeah that blows. I wonder if the shackles are like so many other things these days - Made in China?
 
I am sure they will take care of you and your car, mancinis is a great place keep us updated
 
The only issue with Mancini that I had was the Yukon axles they sell are to long. I think they have addressed this issue now however. It has bee a while since Ive placed orders with them.

It always goes back to the same question "What isn't made in China?"
 
Is it possible the spring just needs to be rotated 180º (front to back) to get the stud to line up? Grade 8 bolts would be cheaper than sending everything back.
 
i had a sh!tty dealing with them and wil ltry my best to not by from them again. they dont have anythign you cant find anywhere else. i bought some of their own products, aluminum front and rear spring bushings and a set of shackles, along with a bunch of other crap. the front eye bushing i was able to push in by hand, it had no shoulders since it was a 1 pc bushing so there was nothing to stop the springs from sliding side to side on the bushing in the spring hanger. they came with a steel sleeve, but the wall thickness was thinner than emt conduit. i figured i could live with them. why i dont know. so onto the back, i go to do the shackle bushings. they were aluminum with an oilite inside. ok didnt look too bad other than the hole in the oilite looked too small. i open up the shackle, the bushings had a 3/8" hole in them, they fit over the threads but not the actual shaft for the bushings. the od of the oilite was only mayeb 1/2 at most. so i call them up and get some prick, so i eas into it. i ask him what shackles the bushings are made for? he says they work with all shackles sir. ok so they should work perfect for a stock shackle then right? absolutely, thats what they are designed for. so i tell him i bought them i have them right in front of me and it just doesnt work. he tells me i must have the wrong parts and all this crap trying to talk to me liek i dont know what im doing. i ask him if he thinks im wrong, if there is any way possible he can get the parts and try it for himself. he was so confident in himself, he put me on hold and went to get the stuff to prove me wrong. picks u pthe phone and hes talking to me like a real prick while hes opening the boxes to put the stuff together the way it is designed. hmmmmm. well it looks like you are right sir, jsut drill out the oilite to fit. no im not drilling out anything you need to redesign this garbage along with the front eye pos bushing. he told me to send it back. ok send me a shipping label, oh no we dont do that, you can make these parts work thats on you if you dont want to or if you want to send them back. the shackle buchings are sitting in my basement 7 years later. the front bushings were on the car when i sold it. i consider it a lesson.
 
Well, with all the companies people ***** piss and moan about on here that booger stuff up, if we stopped doin business with all of those, there'd be nobody left. It ain't like chebbies and we can get parts at the Wal Mart.
 
StrokerScamp said:
Lets see how they handle it before we hammer on um real hard. I've heard nothing but good things about them for years. Had good experiences too.
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I agree Rob, they deserve a chance to make things right. Maybe remind them in a nice way that FABO members are watching how they treat their customers. We need suppliers like them to survive, so many have folded.
 
Had the same problem with the shackle/bolts as you had. After calling Mancini about the problem, I learned the nuts which are locking nuts are only supposed to be torqued to like 7-10 ft lbs Unlike the stock nuts which I think run about 20-25. Mancini was quick to replace the shackles and shipped them free to me and I didn't even have to return the old ones. The problem lies in not having any instructions with them telling you what to torque the new nuts to. Since installation, I have not had any problems.
 
goldfish65 said:
I agree Rob, they deserve a chance to make things right. Maybe remind them in a nice way that FABO members are watching how they treat their customers. We need suppliers like them to survive, so many have folded.
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I actually work for a major internet retailer here in Seattle, so I definitely understand how mix-ups can happen with drop shipping, etc. I'm more than willing to give them a chance to make this right and I really hope that they come through. I'll definitely update this thread on Monday.

dilley340 said:
Is it possible the spring just needs to be rotated 180º (front to back) to get the stud to line up? Grade 8 bolts would be cheaper than sending everything back.
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Haha, that would be incredibly stupid of me! But the passenger side spring has part number P4452982 stamped on the bottom leaf. Definitely a b-body spring.

dodge freak said:
Yeah but so much new stuff is made so cheap now, Mancini is trying to have good prices and decent quality, guess they blew it with the bolts--what is wrong with the shackles--why not just get some good 8 grade bolts and nuts for them?
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You're right, there's always a trade off between quality and price. I chose the Mancini shackles because they were half the price of the Mopar Performance shackles, so you get what you pay for I guess. Unfortunately the bolts are pressed into one side of the shackle so I can't just put a new one in there. I think I'll actually look into fabricating some sort of shackle on my own using grade 8 bolts.

A340 said:
Had the same problem with the shackle/bolts as you had. After calling Mancini about the problem, I learned the nuts which are locking nuts are only supposed to be torqued to like 7-10 ft lbs Unlike the stock nuts which I think run about 20-25. Mancini was quick to replace the shackles and shipped them free to me and I didn't even have to return the old ones. The problem lies in not having any instructions with them telling you what to torque the new nuts to. Since installation, I have not had any problems.
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No kidding, 7-10 ft lbs? Well there's the problem, I was probably somewhere around 15-20 when it sheared. I never would've thought that a suspension component would shear with that little of force being applied to it. Since I don't have a panhard bar, or any other sort of device, those shackles are the only things keeping my axle in place while cornering. I would really expect them to be stronger.

Btw, they also only sent me one nut per shackle so I had to use a stock nut on each shackle as well. Cleaned them off really well and applied some blue loctite so the threads were nice and lubed during assembly but it was definitely the Mancini nut on the bolt that sheared.
 
goldfish65 said:
I agree Rob, they deserve a chance to make things right. Maybe remind them in a nice way that FABO members are watching how they treat their customers. We need suppliers like them to survive, so many have folded.
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I agree with Goldfish. Give the guys at Mancini Racing a chance to make things right.

FYI - Most of the parts I purchase come from Mancini Racing. In fact , the last 3 -4 cars I've built the majority of parts I bought came from Mancini Racing. I've only had 1 hiccup in all those years.

IMO - Wes and his guys are good people.

sscuda
:glasses7:
 
Well guys I gave Mancini a call today and I'm very happy to say that they came through in a big way. They are shipping out the correct spring today and I get to keep the b-body spring since returning it would cost too much in shipping. I'm happy enough with the solution that I'm not even going to worry about the broken shackle. **** happens, I get it, I'm just glad that they stepped up and made it right.

Kinda sucks that the Barracuda will be up on jackstands for at least another week, but it's the rainy season here so I wouldn't be driving it too much anyway.
 
Mancini is a great shop, I bought springs and shackles from them last summer and had no issues. Never had any kind of issue with them and will keep ordering.
They once placed an entire transmission crossmember and mount for a 4 speed b-body in a box of mine by accident, I was more than willing to ship it back to them but they said it would take too much trouble to unpack it and put it back on the shelf, so into my dad's Super Bee it went.

I'm glad to hear they treated you right.
 
Glad they made it right.
I put the same springs and shackles on my duster this summer with no issues.

All vendors have trouble once in a while.
I ordered a rear floor pan one time and recieved a front.
Called the company and they said keep the front pan, it was cheaper to just ship right pan.

Screw up happen we are all human.
 
I have always liked dealing with Mancini. They have always been respectful and competent to me. Yea, they made a mistake on one of my orders a while back, but they took care of it quickly.
 
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