Replacement Parts - Prices Up, Quality Down

[squonk 41,097]

Nice. Went out to the shop and the bowl nut is leaking gas on my C-160. 

[Mike'sHorseBarn 2,998]

2 hours ago, 953 nut said:

Here is a little Blast from the Past.   The Japanese City of Usa became a manufacturing hub in the late '70 and early '80 tim period and all of their products said "Made in USA"

 

 

I find this funny for some reason. It's actually quite clever! To be honest I'd rather have a Japanese made product than Chinese. I feel like they make a better product. I've had any issues with Japanese made Honda parts.

[953 nut 55,213]

1 hour ago, Mike'sHorseBarn said:

I'd rather have a Japanese made product than Chinese. I feel like they make a better product. I've had any issues with Japanese made Honda parts.

Mike, I can't find fault with that reasoning in today's market. In the '70s and '80s the Japanese products were equivalent to today's Chinese junk. They soon realized that they needed to improve quality to be accepted in the marketplace and grow market share. The early Japanese imported cars became rust buckets in no time but today they are good quality vehicles.

When I bought my Dodge truck in 1996 there was an American content label alongside the window sticker, The only non-American parts were the transmission bearings which were Japanese. A few decades earlier that may have been cause for concern. My 2009 Dodge truck was only about 65% (don't remember the exact percentage) North American content. 

Funny thing is our son just bought a Toyota Corolla Hybrid and it was made in Poland.      

[squonk 41,097]

Edit:

 

Make that 2 leaking carb bowl nut gaskets! 

[Handy Don 12,217]

My 2¢ here...

 

It pretty much no longer matters where a part is manufactured or even assembled. High quality machine equipment is everywhere and, except for certain high-tech industries like chipmaking, the knowledge of how to make stuff and put it together is essentially global.

 

Much more important, IMHO, are the quality of the materials being used and the standards and specifications being applied to the manufacture and assembly. These (along with shipping) are the main drivers of quality and price. Unfortunately, none of this information is readily available to us for general consumer products and parts where there are few to no standards beyond basic safety (e.g. a UL-listing or the CE mark and some ASTM standards).

 

Still, for many if not most products, using a country of manufacture or assembly, any country (even the US), as a shorthand for quality of product has become a useless and misleading exercise.

 

Climbing down off my soapbox now.

[clueless 2,989]

9 hours ago, ri702bill said:

 

OK, kids -  time for a partial History "Lesson". I say partial - there were other players involved too, but I want to remind you of how GM "helped" get us to where we are today....

General Motors in 1995 got a new CEO with a different Business Vision. At that time, I was not yet working for my last employer, the Automotive OEM, but was working for their preferred Automation House. They shared their pain.....

 

The name of the CEO escapes me, but two of his mandates to Suppliers were....   

 

All suppliers will cut the cost of the product to GM by 10% each year for the duration of the contract - doesn't care how they do it - just do it. Most opted for offshoring their domestic products.

 

GM required ALL suppliers to have "an Asian Presence" to cut transportation costs, as GM was ramping up car production in the Far East. That created local offshore suppliers and support - new businesses in manufacturing and assembling automotive parts.... and down the road, outdoor power..........

Bill

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GM's problems began by the mid 70's when like so many corporations decided that profits, over quality was priority. By the time Rodger Smith became CO in '81 the quality of their car sucked, while the Japanese were building quality affordably small cars with great gas mileage. GM pretty much had to hope on the Asian train.

[Ed Kennell 38,165]

5 hours ago, Handy Don said:

using a country of manufacture or assembly, any country (even the US), as a shorthand for quality of product has become a useless and misleading exercise.

This may or may not be true today, but certainly was not the case during the 50 years I spent in a heavy manufacturing operation.   In the 1990s I was purchasing  around $10,000,000 worth of equipment/ year and without question, quality from North America, Japan, Germany, and Austria far exceeded  what came from China, North Korea, and Mexico.   

Maybe I'm a biased dinosaur,  but I still try to avoid patronizing governments that own everything and use their citizens for cheap labor.     

[SylvanLakeWH 25,553]

 

Harder every year though... 

[Handy Don 12,217]

23 hours ago, Ed Kennell said:

Maybe I'm a biased dinosaur,  but I still try to avoid patronizing governments that own everything and use their citizens for cheap labor.     

Labor and how its costs and utilization get set/managed matter a lot, for sure, and I fully agree they should be part of anyone’s purchasing strategy.

 

My comments were focused on quality and, again, I agree that a lot has changed in the past 30-ish years to where products intended for our tractors can be made to high levels of quality in many countries around the world, should manufacturers choose to do so.

[hotajax 223]

On 4/19/2023 at 4:30 PM, squonk said:

I use only Kohler OEM rebuild kits and have had the same issue with the carb nut leaking the last 4 I've done. So it doesn't matter what kit you get. Even tried it with a brand new bowl. Next one is getting Aviation Sealer!

Aviation sealer is the bomb

[rmaynard 15,449]

On 4/20/2023 at 12:22 PM, squonk said:

 

Make that 2 leaking carb bowl nut gaskets! 

 

And here is the reason. Look at the image below. Bowl nut in the middle is 5/16-18.

Kohler gasket is on the left. I.D. is 3/8". O.D. is just shy of 1/2"

Tecumseh gasket is on the right. I.D. is 5/16". O.D. is 19/32".

Which do you think will seal better?

 

 

I remember when Kohler used to put a metal washer in the rebuild pack as well as a fiber one.

 

[squonk 41,097]

1 hour ago, rmaynard said:

 

And here is the reason. Look at the image below. Bowl nut in the middle is 5/16-18.

Kohler gasket is on the left. I.D. is 3/8". O.D. is just shy of 1/2"

Tecumseh gasket is on the right. I.D. is 5/16". O.D. is 19/32".

Which do you think will seal better?

 

 

I remember when Kohler used to put a metal washer in the rebuild pack as well as a fiber one.

 

Kohler carbs use 2 different size nuts. 5/16" for K90 thru K181 Carter carbs #13 thru #22. 1/2" hex.   3/8" for K241 on up K241 on up Carter carbs #26 ,28, 30 carbs 9/16" hex.

 

I needed the 5/16" one and didn't have it. Used anextra seat gasket in it's place with Aviation sealer. Seems to be holding so far.

Edited April 24, 2023 by squonk

[Blasterdad 2,692]

I bought a China carb off fleabay that was total junk, when I left negative feedback they asked what they could do to remedy my "dissatifaction".

They asked if I could take pictures of what was wrong with it. I replied NO, they are tiny little parts inside of it & horrible maching tolerances, how am I supposed to photograph that?

I don't want my money back, I don't want another one, what I do want is for you to know ( & everyone else who read my review ) that you should be ashamed for selling this product.

A golf ball with a hole drilled in it would work better, I'm going to make a soap dispenser out of it.

Negative feedback stands...( all they were worried about anyway ). Never heard back from them after that, go figure.

 

I knew better but thought I'd take a chance, only original Kohler carbs & parts for me now, ( although I do have an old Mikuni carb off a dirt bike I'd like make an adaptor for... )

 

[Mike'sHorseBarn 2,998]

So I said before I never had an issue with the isavetractor.com carb rebuild kits and I must have jinxed my self. I was working on getting the c160 running that's been sitting since the late 90's. Needless to say the carb need cleaned. I put the kit in and the parts looked different than before. Put the carb back together, adjusted the float, put it back on and that new needle wouldn't seat to save its life. Carb dumped gas everywhere. Took it apart again, cleaned up the original needle and seat and reset the float and it worked like a charm. Guess I'm going back to kohler kits!