Reply To: Phil Bray’s High Speed Gearsets

[Author nameAuthor names are only available to PAS members.]

Joe,

Don’t give him a penny…he deserves nothing! As far as I am concerned it would be impossible for anyone to further ‘besmirch his character’ beyond the low level of regard that I have for his business practices and personal character.

I also have had problems with the Phil Bray set in my 1247 which was installed by member Scott Stastny in his Shop. Both he and I were totally blown off by Phil when Scott could not set up the gears properly. I couldn’t afford to fight so I tolerate the noise and am 100% confident that the fault lies with improper lap-in by Phil…or total lack of lap- in as the case may be. Ron Blissit had the same issue with his 1933 and spent over 100 re-lapping the gearset himself because Phil would do nothing for him claiming that Ron wasn’t installing it properly. Those of us that know Ron know that he doesn’t do anything incorrectly on his cars.

When you and John Dillman had problems, I lent Phil my original gearset at his request so that he could verify that thewre were ‘some issues’ with a small number of sets. He later returned the original gearset to me and said it had been helpful in getting the ‘issues’ resolved.

You and John got adjustments from Phil…I got nothing except advice to pull the gearset out and bring ot to him to test or replace. He didn’t think he was liable for any labor …and I spent at least as much as you did. So you can see how appreciateve he was of my help in providing the original low 55,000 mile gearset for him to compare specs.

Phil could spend a few dollars more to have every gearset lapped in by the company that produces them, but he doesn’t despite the outlandish prices that he charges.

So I have no respect for him and assure you that based on my experience and the feedback from other PAS mermbers that the problem WAS with the Bray gearset and the man.You deserved the money back just as I deserve to be reimbursed for my cost of a second removal to fix his inferior product preparation.

I strongly recommend against purchasing Phil Bray Gears for Pierce-Arrow vehicles from the ’30’s. The gearset problems might be fixable, but Phil is obviously not.

Carol Bray is a real sweetheart. She has to be to live with such an absurdly greedy pompous self-centered egotist.