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[Bingobelle]

Recently I repaired two of my friends makita tools. 1 cutoff tool and one circular saw. On both machine the brushholders had melted beyond identification.

Now a bhp451 stopped working in 3:d gear. I ripped the tool apart and just as i suspected the plastic gear shifter ring had the teeth ripped of. Ok, no problem I thought, just to buy a new shitty plastic ring.I called the workshop and was told that no spareparts can be bought on a makita gearbox. You have to buy a whole new gearbox for 798 swedish crown + 25% vat. That is about 122 american dollars exluded the vat. He told me that this was a common problem on the makita drills. On the Hitachi it is also a lot of plastic PooPoo inside he told me but at least you are able to buy individual parts on the Hitachi and are not forced to buy a whole gearbox.

I told him to start to sell Dewalt instead, no problem with plastic PooPoo inside and also if something goes wrong you can buy individual parts.

In 2 years my carpenters friend have blown about 10 makita battery, 5 drills with gearbox problem, circular saw, cutoff tool and probelry more I do not know.

So, is makita worthless junk? I´m starting to think so.


I forgott one thing, he has 2 bhp451 drill. The other 451 got the axle that the chuck is bolted on stripped off when screwing up a door frame. The chuck landed on the flor. All that was left was a broken axle from the gearbox.

[TerryWills-KMS]

What your service guy said is not true.  That plastic change ring was specifically designed to be sacrificial.  Makita designed this drill this way because roasting third gear is very common on three-speed drills.  Instead of roasting third gear, it rips apart the change ring, saving the transmission.  It's a very cheap part ($6 CAD) to replace for this reason.

He might have heard you wrong and assumed the wrong thing.  You want a nylon change ring.  Call your local Makita distribution center or Makita service center to get one.

Cheers,

[Bingobelle]

Well, I do not distrust you but thing is that there is not a partnumber on this part. I was looking at the schematic skiss of the bhp451 and there is only a partnumber for the whole gearbox. There is no number for any part inside the gearbox. So how to order something that does not have partnumber? I was very clear that it was the circular nylon ring that change the gears. He understood me perfectly well and told me that this was his common day at work.

For what I have understood makita made a new gearbox for this drill just because there where to many drills coming back under gaurantee. The gearbox it self seems to be a nice gearbox and of good quality, it is a pitty they did not maker this part a bit stronger. But if there is a sparepart number please show a link because I can not find any, at least not on Swedish makita page and I also looked at ereplacement parts in the United states.

Just rembered, actually I also wrote a e-mail to makita headquarter in  Sweden and they told me the same thing.
Regards

[TerryWills-KMS]

Hey Bingobelle,

Here is a link to the scematic of the BHP451 on the Canadian site.  We have a guy who works here in sales who was an outside demo guy for Makita for several years and he's very familiar with what you're talking about.  He said there was a rolling change in the gearbox and two change rings available.  Take a look at the scematic here:

http://www.makita.ca/data/upload/tools/BHP451%20-%20SEP2008_parts_English.pdf

Notice how there is a type 1 and type 2 change ring?

You'll have to find out what one fits your drill but I assure you, you can replace this one part.

The part numbers are as follows:

418763-8 SPEED CHANGE RING (TYPE1)
419558-2 SPEED CHANGE RING (TYPE2)

Hope this helps,

Terry
KMS Tools & Equipment Ltd

[TerryWills-KMS]

If you want, I can call Makita Canada and get more info.

[Bingobelle]

Thanks a lot for your help. I copy the link and wrote a e-mail to makita Sweden and asked for a explonation. The case might be that you can buy this part in Us and Canada but not in Sweden. I have to wait and se what they will answer.

It might be that it is much more important to treat customers well in Us or Canada because it is a big market. Sweden is a very small market and maybee they do not care over here.

I actually have a simulary thing with Dewalt. I bought a DCF610 the same day it came out here, must be like 4 to 5 months ago. I have asked for the beltclip for that tool for months but still Dewalt have not managed to get them to Sweden. So some month ago I just bought a holster instead, did not feel like I wanted to wait more.  We come in second hand in our little country  so to say.

Best Regards

[Bingobelle]

Starting to get interesting. The technical adviser in makita headqaurter Stockholm did not know about this but thought it was very interesting so he asked me to stay put for a day and he will try to get this spareparts for me. He had to "investigate" he wrote to me.

[Bingobelle]

Terry! Just as you say, no problem to order this part. Funny thing is just that I had to show them partlist, schematic view of the drill and also had to ask twice before they admitted it is possible to buy the part instead of a whole new gearbox.

Thanks a lot! I appreciate your time taking.

Regards


Christian

[TerryWills-KMS]

No problem at all.  I'm happy to help another tool guy.