Spyderco Advocate bearing Race A total Failure..

[UAB89]

So I bought the Spyderco advocate new from BladeHQ ~ a month ago.. I love the looks and ergonomics of the the knife and thus it has been my daily carry since receiving it.. over the past week or so the knife has gotten progressively more off center and the action has gotten worse.. I tried cleaning the knife and and Nano lube but the action got progressively worse..

Today I decided to disassemble the knife and clean out the inside.. this is what I found.

The washer is literally split in half.. to make matters worse I call customer service to see if maybe they would send me some washers.. they claim "they never send out internal parts and I would have to send in my knife in and likely pay for the repair because the knife has been dissembled.. seriously spyderco..


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[Jordan@DLT]

Yeah there's been a couple of threads about this. Sal said they're working on it.

 

[Whitedog]

Here is what I would do. Re assemble the knife and send it back to Spyderco. Doubt they keep record of who called about a knife they took apart.

 

[UAB89]

Yeah there's been a couple of threads about this. Sal said they're working on it.

Yeah this kind of total failure of the bearing race makes the knife unusable.. then to have customer service tell you that you have to send it in and Likly pay for them to put the same faulty washers in the knife is unacceptable..


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[AF]

I would hope that Spyderco would not charge you for disassembly. They put out a faulty design. And we've heard that they're working on a solution.
Curious, how many openings would you say it took before this failure?

 

[UAB89]

Here is what I would do. Re assemble the knife and send it back to Spyderco. Doubt they keep record of who called about a knife they took apart.

Yeah I would not try lying to them..they would be able to tell right away I took apart the knife 1 because of the scuffs I made trying to break the red loctite and 2 because I don't own red loctite and would reassemble with blue loctite..


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[UAB89]

I would hope that Spyderco would not charge you for disassembly. They put out a faulty design. And we've heard that they're working on a solution.
Curious, how many openings would you say it took before this failure?

I fiddle with my knives when bored or watching tv so over the past month I would say a thousand or so..


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[AF]

Your ball for the detent looks like it developed a flat spot. Did the detent get weaker over time?

 

[uxo2]

I call customer service to see if maybe they would send me some washers.. they claim "they never send out internal parts and I would have to send in my knife in and likely pay for the repair because the knife has been dissembled.. seriously spyderco..

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As for parts. They always have done that.

You took it apart... That's on you.

 

[UAB89]

Your ball for the detent looks like it developed a flat spot. Did the detent get weaker over time?

I wouldn't say the detent had gotten any weaker and I think that's probably related to the strong lockbar tension

As for parts. They always have done that.

You took it apart... That's on you.

Yeah I didn't figure they would send parts but I have herd others on the past say that they called and were sent washers and screws ect so that was worth a shot.. at least that way I would not have to pay for postage and have them fix it..

And yes I took it apart.. i have never owned many spydercos the majority of my collection is Chris reeve and traditional which dissemble not feasible and Chris reeves who actually encourage you to dissemble and clean your knives.. of the three spydercos I've owned the advocate, nirvana, and slysz I have dissembled cleaned and lubed all without incidence.. though spyderco may disagree I believe a company should stand behind their product and fix the knife it if an issue arises free of charge.. now if the problem were related to something I did during the disassembly I can see how I should be responsible for paying for the repairs.. but not secondary to regular maintenance



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[kurt6652]

I am starting to think that bearings are something to avoid in future knife purchases for me. I have a couple of knives with bearings and my experience is that they are not smoother than my knives with washers.

I hope you are able to get your knife repaired without being charged for it.

 

[Daniel]

Best photos of this problem that have seen! Good job!

Mine is still at Spyderco!

 

[uxo2]

OP.

I wish you luck...

Hopefully Sal will chime in and get right.

No reason to believe You will be SOL
on the disassembly.

 

[marcus52AR]

I thought these bearings and washers were very much like the Southard/Domino/Mantra?

I had to send both my Southard and Domino in for repairs for pretty much the exact issue above. Have they made a design change for the advocate or is it the same bad formula?

My Domino has been great since it came back from the spidie spa, I sold my Southard but it flipped great as well upon return. Love the Domino, not a fan of the bearing and pivot setup. I would happily swap to pb washers if I could.

 

[Lapedog]

Isn't there a place youncan order new non bearing washers for dirt cheap? There must be.

 

[jpm2]

And yes I took it apart.. i have never owned many spydercos the majority of my collection is Chris reeve and traditional which dissemble not feasible and Chris reeves who actually encourage you to dissemble and clean your knives.. of the three spydercos I've owned the advocate, nirvana, and slysz I have dissembled cleaned and lubed all without incidence.. though spyderco may disagree I believe a company should stand behind their product and fix the knife it if an issue arises free of charge.. now if the problem were related to something I did during the disassembly I can see how I should be responsible for paying for the repairs.. but not secondary to regular maintenance

This exactly.
Manufactures who weasel out of warranty issues should be questioned. I wouldn't expect this of Spyderco.

 

[UAB89]

I thought these bearings and washers were very much like the Southard/Domino/Mantra?

I had to send both my Southard and Domino in for repairs for pretty much the exact issue. Have they made a design change for the advocate or is it the same bad formula?

My Domino has been great since it came back from the spidie spa. Love the knife, not a fan of the bearing and pivot setup. I would happily swap to pb washers if I could.

From my experience and the little bit of research I have done the bearing races appear to be thinner on the on the advocate than the southard I believe and also it appears that the bearings are also smaller that coupled with the strong lockbar pressure is where your problem arises..


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[Daniel]

They look like the same size to me. I have taken apart my Southard, but not my Advocate. My Southard washers and bearings look the same as the ones in your photo.

My Southard was rough and then it wasn't, but I would expect it to chew through in time, also.

 

[Surfingringo]

Hi UAB89, I'm curious about this issue. Did you make any adjustments to the pivot in the month before you disassembled the knife? Like in an attempt to center the blade?

 

[AF]

As far as I know, bearing race issues were first widely reported on the Mantra. And again, as far as I can tell, they were largely ignored by Spyderco. Now Spyderco has a lot of customers who don't trust their bearing pivots. It's gonna take time to restore that confidence.
Don't get me wrong. I love Spyderco. Their 2017 catalog is miles better than the competition. I just wish they would have been a bit more proactive in this case.