Many new parts are garbage

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Many new parts are garbage

Postby seattle smitty » Tue Mar 08, 2016 4:29 pm

My auto machinist of many decades has been telling me that many of the new parts he gets in are cr@p. All of us need to be aware of this. If you let your shop buy the parts you will pay a bit more but the shop assumes responsibility for the parts and the installation,

AND he can make a little profit on the parts to cover all the extra work. Auto machine shops are not a good business to be in anymore, and you can look for them to gradually disappear, so if you have found a good one, treat them well, learn and show them that you understand their problems, and they well show their appreciation.

If on the other hand you buy your parts from one of the big cut-rate mail outfits like Jegs or Summit, YOU are responsible for dealing with parts problems. So if you are going to supply parts to the shop, you better get the full set of precision measuring equipment and get very good at using it. If you are thinking, "Oh I know how to mike piston skirts," you don't really get it; that's just barely a start. Incidently, unless you're satisfied with buying crate-motors or getting the shop to build your engine, you need to develop your precision measuring skills to double-check the work that comes back from the shop, because even good ones make occasional mistakes. I once got a Ford Fiesta block back from being bored at a good shop (they also did Top Fuel engines), and found that all the new bores had a huge amount of taper. Turns out that a recently-hired CK-10 operator (who should have known better and should have checked better) had goofed in his set-up. He was supposedly knowledgable, and he was very embarrassed and fixed the problem (with a 2nd over-bore), but he didn't last long at that shop.

Anyway, read this article, by the late great Joe Mondello, one of the best and busiest builders of racing and hot rod engines:

http://mondello.com/page24.html
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Re: Many new parts are garbage

Postby Kwagon2 » Wed Mar 09, 2016 1:33 pm

Hi
You make some very good points and your machinist is right on the money with his assessment of some of the parts running through the system! Whats so disconcerting is that these parts show up boxed under what were formerly "trusted" brand names in auto parts!
I've built a few engines and I'll be doing one again shortly and I've found that sourcing quality components is getting tougher.
Your point about "looking after" a good shop is very valid , the shop that does my machine work I've known and dealt with for close to 42 years ; in fact I now talk to the son of the founder of the shop, but you don't always get that where a shop moves from father to son and the chain continues! Recently I've heard that a local shop known for racing engine work has changed hands and with that some horror stories have surfaced about some very shoddy work. Its a fact that as the original owners age and retire so goes the shop and the fact that a lot of young folks have no interest in the "Hands on" trades!!
Something has to change 'cause once all of the old horses have given up the yolk ....well ....?
Joe Mondello...74 years of age!!!
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Re: Many new parts are garbage

Postby seattle smitty » Wed Mar 09, 2016 3:51 pm

A lot of the cr@ppy imported parts are what the big auto parts chains contract to get in huge volumes. These outfits make money by sales volume, not mark-up, which seems good for us initially. And they will replace bad parts with no questions asked, figuring it as an acceptable cost of the way they do business (maybe cheaper than having good inspection proceedures set up at the factories?). But do you really want this stuff in a vehicle you depend on, one you have put time and effort into fixing up and maybe upgrading, a keeper?? Do you really want to install the part, find out it's bad, and have to take it off, take it back to the store for another one, etc., etc., etc.??!!!

My suggestion is to use the big chain stores for stuff like car-wax and oil and wiper blades, and to get important parts from long-time specialists. So, being in the Seattle area, I get driveline parts such as U-joints from an old outfit called Drivelines Northwest. They do big trucks more than cars, and they frequently balance shafts with the new U-joints installed. So they know which companies are building U-joints so bad that the shafts can't be brought into balance! (If you don't have such an outfit in your town, these guys say that Spicer still is providing good U-joints).

Similarly, I get brake and clutch parts from another old Seattle company, Brake and Clutch Supply, which again does a lot of heavy truck business. Fifty and sixty-year-old operations like this employ serious men who know their trade, which is more than you can say for the big corporate "home improvement" outfits that replaced real hardware store, and is WAAY more than you can say for the big auto parts chains that employ high school boys and girls. So look around and ask around (at your machine shop, for starters) for these old-line specialists, and treat them right; don't just get advice, buy something from them!!
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Re: Many new parts are garbage

Postby 89ARIES » Thu Mar 10, 2016 5:12 am

They are all garbage. K-Cars are being fed cheap alternators, defective struts, and it is all done on purpose.
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Re: Many new parts are garbage

Postby seattle smitty » Thu Mar 10, 2016 6:28 pm

They're not (so far) ALL garbage; you have to hunt for the good stuff, or the okay stuff. I just told you about Spicer U-joints, for one example.

And nobody is specifically trying to kill the remaining K-cars by supplying bad parts for K-cars, Guy. The top management of these giant multinational corporations and of the giant banks that own so much and so many of them could not care less about K-cars one way or other. A few of their hired congresspeople sometimes listen to the eco-freaks who occasionally lobby for ALL old cars to be taken off the roads and replaced by computer-operated electric cars (or mass transit). But if and whenever they act on this it will be by direct action (first example was the short-lived buy-back scheme a few years ago), and nothing as silly-conspiratorial as trying to kill us off with crummy Chinese parts. Those lousy off-shored/out-sourced parts are the result NOT of any insidious conspiracy, but of a capitalist system that used to work very well but has recently gotten seriously out-of-whack and in dire need of adjustment. Adam Smith would roll over in his grave if he could see how the giant multinationals have subverted his system. (Alas, not one of the current candidates for Supreme Leader has it in him or her to actually fix the situation).

So when are you going to phone me, Guy? :lol:

Saw an interesting car the other day. Thought it might be a late K-car, but couldn't tell from the I.D. on the car, and didn't recognize the emblem. The owner said it was an '89 (or '90, I forget) Chrysler-Maserati. Wikipedia says it was a modified second-generation K-car platform. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_TC_by_Maserati
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Re: Many new parts are garbage

Postby 85lebaront2 » Sun Jan 15, 2017 2:02 am

The Chrysler TC by Maserati was based on the G-body (Daytona) even though it looks a lot like the J-body LeBaron. Back to the original discussion, I agree that many aftermarket parts are cheap Chinese crap. Bad enough that Ford starter relays, even NAPA ones will weld them selves together due to the crappy copper used in them. I try as much as possible to stick with OEM parts, but even that isn't an ironclad guarantee. I put a set of KYB struts and rear shocks on my 1985 Konvertible, and saved them so they will be going on it's replacement.

One of the things that our government has done in the interest of safety, elimination of asbestos caused unintended problems, asbestos was a major component of both clutch discs and brake linings. The substitutes do not work anywhere near as well. Cars with small drum brakes like our 200 mm ones, will experience brake fade very easily. Where I retired from we were having real problems with brakes on our large cranes, the vegetable lining material burned up and the Kevlar or metallic wouldn't hold properly. Major safety concern!
1986 Lebaron convertible, 2.2L T2, modified A413
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Re: Many new parts are garbage

Postby seattle smitty » Mon Jan 23, 2017 9:33 pm

Oh man, you hit one of my hot buttons with asbestos. The hysterical response that took asbestos out of a lot of products frequently made for inferior products. In our interest here is the removal of asbestos from gasket material and replacement by one or other rubber component. Gaskets aren't nearly as good now, and you have to hunt and pay a lot of money to get the good stuff. Try this: https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=go ... h+asbestos
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