Hey guys I’m alive a trip to atomic 4x4 almost cost me my life. It started like a bad dream and ended up a nightmare. it’s a long story a few weeks back John Stefka said he could put in my gears in victoria at his foreman’s shop. ( didn’t know it was a rent a shop) seemed strange but I felt committed John said should take 8-12 hrs wife insisted we take 2 vehicles didn’t pack anything well went there on at sat 8am ended staying in vic didn’t leave vict till 10pm Sunday.

Before we rode off took it for test drive well and rear end was making a whining noise and front locker leaked not right at this point. John states probably superior gears make that noise. We are all exhausted made a deal to take it to Austin at his shop where there’s a lift and equipment needed to make it right, and get lockers fixed at his “professional shop” So a few weeks later on sat leave home 4am head to Austin by myself wife sick doesn’t want to be stuck in Austin like what happened in Victoria she stays home. Well done at sat 8pm he also added that he felt 100% about work on the front differential but only 80% on the rear even wrote in on receipt if I had problems with it to get it worked on locally and he would cover it. That gave me a feeling of unrest. I test drove it sounds good head to corpus before I left John says to text him when I get home and call him if any problems. Exhausted happy to be on my way home at this point stop to fuel up noted small ding under passenger door not good figure ill let him know about that Monday. Driving on hwy 35 decided Ill take road 123 driving down the road I’m 2hrs away from home and 2 hrs past Austin. Suddenly the jeep veered onto the opposing lane and felt like rear end went airborne I feathered the brakes and slowly worked it back to the lane and coming to a halt on the shoulder. After I calmed down I figured rear end had come apart. I got out to inspect the problem and came to the conclusion that it wasn’t the rear end when I inspected the front noted left front caliper jammed forward between the rotor and the rim. Well I called John numerous times and no answer even text him . I called numbers on the receipt one guy answered immediately but he said that was no longer his shop he had sold it to John 3 years ago. All this seems really odd. From 10pm to 12mn I made calls for wrecker service called 15 different numbers my wife helping at home looking for towing numbers to call . John never called back. Finally got one that would be there in 11/2hrs well at 430am wrecker shows up but in mean time as I am waiting on the side of the road people come by slow down then see me in the vehicle and they race off . I had nothing on me to protect myself. Not a good feeling. I arrived via tow at my home 7am Sunday at tow turned out to be $675. My poor wife was worried sick. I get a call from John at 130pm Sunday states his phone battery was dead. I know now that was bull. He said “oh my god I will cover all charges including parts and tow and I will give them my credit card number if you can find parts locally.” Well here it is Tuesday evening John is not answering his phone, email, text. Basically he has left me high and dry. You know John told me himself there was a old hippy guy that is unhappy with him regarding him not answering his call etc over some unsettled issue, but he said it held no merit. Well now I’m in the same boat as that hippy man. He should be elated that I didn’t kill myself or someone else and my rig is in one piece. It could’ve been really ugly, just because of his negligence. Oh any by the way when I went to look at the bolts on the front passenger caliper one was missing and the other I was able to remove with my finger apparently John or employee failed to tighten them appropriately they just finger tightened them . God was on my side and I believe if I had taken hwy 35 I probably wouldn’t even be here today. I have given John every opportunity to provide me with the service I deserve and he has constantly let me down. I’m stuck taking care of all these issues that I didn’t cause and force me to have to take other actions to recover my losses and get my rig back in working order. I have posted pics. I would never recommend John Stefka to anyone. He is unorganized, uncaring and unprofessional.

SORRY FOR A LONG POST JUST WANTED ALL THE INFO OUT THERE SO YOU CAN FORM YOUR OWN OPINION.

Tonite while trying to put parts back on it and checking all John's work, I found driveshaft bolts loose and passengers caliper bolts had one missing and one finger loose.

Holy shit.

What's next?

lawsuit/BBB

First of all thank god you are ok. It's people like that, that need to dragged out back behind the garage "they own" break every one of their fingers and let's see how they're going to work.

Thanks for all the support!!

I have been following it on JKO too. I sent dude a PM suggesting that he respond....

What a damn shame.

Thanks Ron this has been a trying time. And my jeep will never be the same.

DAMN! Great to hear you came out of this alive! Good luck finding this C*ck $ucker!

Time to beat some ass. I have to go by that way in a few weeks anyway.

What is sad is that douchebag signed in to JKO and visited the thread. You can see who is viewing at the bottom of the threads. He was there for a while and did not reply.... just left.

Another guy from OK posted up that same dude tucked him out of 18 grand on a 30k build....

Shit is gonna get nasty

WOW! I mean WOW! . What a crying shame. That's too many problems in too many different areas. Sounds like that feller was never even qualified to replace a fuse much less put in gears. I smell a rat!

I sure hope you get all the repairs fixed and settle up with them.

That sux. sometimes getting a "good deal" doesn't end up such a good deal. Glad you're ok.

I am sorry about your experience but glad you are ok. Let me know if I can help in anyway

damn dude, glad you made it though.

Wow! That sucks... That dude will get hung eventually.. You'd think if " god" was on your side the gears would have been installed correctly in the 1st place
Gears are 1 thing I don't fool with either.. Hope all ends up well for ya..

man i would be so pissed..............

btw, Thrash Differentials in San Antonio on West Avenue is a good place to get your gears set up. They charged me $250.00 for the rear and $450.00 for the front (they were fixing Brutal Offroad's F@%*'d up install ). Not so bad a price considering Brutal charged me $450 / axle





disclaimer: the price was plus parts (timken bearings, gear lube, etc).