Build 'em like they used too?

[rt66paul]

Thee was this old clerk at the auto parts store I work in in 74. He talked about buying a roll of packing material when he was in high school and he would rebuild ford flathead water pumps in pop's garage. He did generators and regulators also when he was in college. He would make enough to always have walking around money.
Be careful what you ask for, the good old days when you could rebuild parts usually meant that they needed rebuilding once a year on an older vehicle. Believe me, in the 70s, it was rare to see a 30 year old car, especially one as a daily driver. Now, we see them every day.

 

[Octane]

Thee was this old clerk at the auto parts store I work in in 74. He talked about buying a roll of packing material when he was in high school and he would rebuild ford flathead water pumps in pop's garage. He did generators and regulators also when he was in college. He would make enough to always have walking around money.
Be careful what you ask for, the good old days when you could rebuild parts usually meant that they needed rebuilding once a year on an older vehicle. Believe me, in the 70s, it was rare to see a 30 year old car, especially one as a daily driver. Now, we see them every day.

Now they're already "rebuilt" for you and last 10 k miles or once a year whichever comes first. If you're lucky.

 

[Octane]

On the Autozone website it says their Duralast parts meet or exceed oe parts.Strange,I never had oem parts on any of my vehicles that fail at low mileage and/ or bad right out of the box like the rebuilt or even new units/ garbage they sell.hmm.

 

[Raider L]

I've always rebuilt my alt.'s and carbs., and replaced starter solinoids even disassemble starters to see if cleaning the armature would help it. Sometimes it did sometimes there was a short in the windings and had to get a new starter anyway. I finally broke down and bought a new alt. here recently, but ordered a whole rebuild kit for my old alt. even a new field core, bearings and all. Now I have a new old alt. just in case the new one made in China doesn't hold up.

The one thing I have found was I have to search closely to make sure I'm getting a voltage regulator of high enough volts to get the one I want which is 14.4-6 volts. Many I've found are just 14 volts, some are 14.8 volts which is fine except anything over 15 volts is to over charge. 14 volts is not good enough because as soon as you turn the headlights on and step on the brakes the voltage goes down to 13.5 volts or less. I've read that it's taking power from the battery if your regulator drops below 13.3-4 volts. So figuring inaccurate readings the regulator probably is below 13.5 and less and the battery is not charging like it should be.

 

[oldretiredafguy]

On the Autozone website it says their Duralast parts meet or exceed oe parts.Strange,I never had oem parts on any of my vehicles that fail at low mileage and/ or bad right out of the box like the rebuilt or even new units/ garbage they sell.hmm.

This same company is also very anti 2nd amendment.

 

[Goldie Driver]

This same company is also very anti 2nd amendment.

More reason to go to Advance Auto, then.

Commie Phuckers.

 

[Octane]

This same company is also very anti 2nd amendment.

That is good to know

 

[Slybeanx]

There needs to be an FCP euro equivalent for other non german brands.

Lifetime warranty parts store that will even replace Oil. I buy everything for my E30 there and never have to worry about a part failing, I just ship it back and get a new one.

 

[Salty Crusty]

More reason to go to Advance Auto, then. Commie Phuckers.

I'm an O'Reilly's guy. I have a couple of counter guys that recognize me when I walk in the door. "Which of your POS trucks are you needing parts for today" is my usual greeting but they can grab most of the parts I need right off the shelf without looking anything up in the computer.

I'll go across town or buy parts online to avoid having to walk into AutoZone.

 

[Goldie Driver]

I'm an O'Reilly's guy. I have a couple of counter guys that recognize me when I walk in the door. "Which of your POS trucks are you needing parts for today" is my usual greeting but they can grab most of the parts I need right off the shelf without looking anything up in the computer.

I'll go across town or buy parts online to avoid having to walk into AutoZone.

Auto parts is like Hydraulics - a small world.

At my Advanced I see people that use to work at O'reilly's & Auto Zone, and probably if I went to Auto Zone I'd see people that I recognized from the other places.

Used to be a lot of people on the counter that could give you tips & tricks, too - not as much anymore.

That's OK, I guess - I would settle for telling me ways to avoid Chinesium.

Pretty much cannot be done now ...

 

[Octane]

Just rebuilt my quadrajet with sorensen parts.Cheap makers dont supply floats anymore.Got one for 10 bucks.Runs so good now I cant stand it! First rebuild since truck was new. I ran it till it started stopping in the Waffle House parking lot and just had to fix it.

 

[oldretiredafguy]

Just rebuilt my quadrajet with sorensen parts.Cheap makers dont supply floats anymore.Got one for 10 bucks.Runs so good now I cant stand it! First rebuild since truck was new. I ran it till it started stopping in the Waffle House parking lot and just had to fix it.

Waffle House? Didn't know any were still open.

 

[Octane]

Hurricanes or disease can't close a Waffle House.They had waitresses out in the parking lot running a drivethru during part of the covid situation

 

[Curt]

There is American made parts out there.You’re gonna pay for it.(which I don’t mind),but the hard part is sifting through pages and pages of the generics found on the internet.So far,I haven’t found too many parts on my squarebody that I can’t get American.

Alternators,starters,water pumps,bearings,switches,drivetrain parts.

Problem is that “most” people want the cheap **** and so that’s what comes up in a search because the algorithms give you the popular results or who is paying the most in advertising.

Here’s a USA made gen

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