Garbage remanufactured parts... Venting

[ripcord]

Just wanting to vent... I was diagnosing a no spark condition on my OBS Ford pickup this morning. After eliminating most other possibilities, everything pointed to the Hall Effect pickup in the distributor, otherwise known as the camshaft position sensor in Ford nomenclature. I pulled the distributor to test the sensor and look what I found. A 2 cent rollpin had sheered and the drive gear was spinning freely on the shaft. The distributor is a reman unit I bought from my FLAPS several years ago.

Based on the other roll pin through the bushing above the gear, the remanufacturer used an undersized pin, both in diameter and length. I was able to push both roll pins out by hand with very little effort. Talk about for want of a nail.

 

[paulo57509]

The rebuilt distributors for old Chevrolet 194-292 sixes were better than the factory ones. The rebuilders used to bush both ends of the shaft; the factory only bushed the lower end. When worn, the tell-tale was it wouldn't hold a consistent dwell.

 

[ripcord]

The rebuilt distributors for old Chevrolet 194-292 sixes were better than the factory ones. The rebuilders used to bush both ends of the shaft; the factory only bushed the lower end. When worn, the tell-tale was it wouldn't hold a consistent dwell.

So that's why the one in my 50 Chevy visibly wobbles while running.

Edit: just realized we were talking about different engine types. The one in my old truck is a 235.

 

[FowVay]

I bought a remanufactured Hitachi starter from the dealership for a friends car on Thursday. The starter lasted for less than 20 starts before it shorted internally. I was hoping I'd get a better product purchasing through the dealership but this experience has certainly changed my attitude.

 

[paulo57509]

So that's why the one in my 50 Chevy visibly wobbles while running.

Edit: just realized we were talking about different engine types. The one in my old truck is a 235.

The some engines of the 235 series used to use fiber cam gears. I've seen a few with stripped teeth. My guess is infrequent oil changes?

 

[Chevyc10]

I rent shipping containers. Saw a large number of mine at state prison. Wrote down container numbers, looked up renter and asked him why they were at prison. He said they contained car parts being rebuilt by prisoners. Labor very cheap. Containers had cores, parts for rebuild & finished product.

 

[Donald]

A local rebuilder told me if an alternator he is rebuilding has a broken diode in the bridge he puts in a new bridge. He went on to say the 3rd world rebuilders try and solder in a new diode. Expand that to all the parts in an alternator or starter and you can understand why the cheap rebuilds don't last long.

And he won't rebuild some alternators. Like a Mando. Used in Mercruiser and Bobcat.

 

[ripcord]

I rent shipping containers. Saw a large number of mine at state prison. Wrote down container numbers, looked up renter and asked him why they were at prison. He said they contained car parts being rebuilt by prisoners. Labor very GVcheap. Containers had cores, parts for rebuild & finished product.

Wow! Which state was this? Maybe that would explain a few things about Jasper engines, lol.

 

[Chevyc10]

Wow! Which state was this? Maybe that would explain a few things about Jasper engines, lol.

Prison was in central Florida

 

[Chris142]

The slant-6 used a nylon gear on the bottom of the distributor. Used to sell them all day long when I worked at the auto parts store.

 

[nascarnation]

They used to stamp out license plates with embossed numbers/letters at state prisons but the new style flat aluminum ones with adhesive overlay graphics were so cheap they took over the market.

 

[ripcord]

Fun fact... A EFI Ford small block will start and idle with 50+ degrees of base timing! I got it a tooth off on my first try at stabbing in the distributor. The pre-ignition was so bad I thought I had wiped a rod bearing from lack of oil pressure due to the sheared drive pin.

 

[nthach]

They used to stamp out license plates with embossed numbers/letters at state prisons but the new style flat aluminum ones with adhesive overlay graphics were so cheap they took over the market.

3M has a monopoly on that with states that don’t use the prison system to stamp out plates - and it’s also instant gratification. DMV doesn’t need to keep sequentially-numbered plates at their field offices.

 

[clinebarger]

Talk about for want of a nail.

I've seen bent over nails on Ford distributors as a road side repair

 

[ripcord]

I've seen bent over nails on Ford distributors as a road side repair

That would definitely work. I found some proper 1/8" roll pins for mine.

 

[daves87rs]

Seems quite a few don’t last……

 

[Exhaustgases]

As a youngster never thought about those being such a stupid bad design, and not just ford.

 

[Mazomopar]

3M has a monopoly on that with states that don’t use the prison system to stamp out plates - and it’s also instant gratification. DMV doesn’t need to keep sequentially-numbered plates at their field offices.

3M also had the monopoly back when they were stamping plates. The Scotchbrite reflective material was applied to the plate material. Friends job after college was with 3M going from prison to prison selling and setting up assembly.

 

[Donald]

They used to stamp out license plates with embossed numbers/letters at state prisons but the new style flat aluminum ones with adhesive overlay graphics were so cheap they took over the market.

Not sure who was involved but there were a series of license plates in NY with embossed letters but an adhesive overlay on top of that where in many cases the adhesive overlay would peel off. By the time I moved from NY my embossed license plate was aluminum colored. I felt NY DVM knew the license plate series with this problem and could have just sent out new license plates to those likely to have the problem.

I also did not want an ugly pumpkin orange replacement license plate.

Now I have a lighthouse design Delaware license plate.

 

[Kira]

DMV doesn’t need to keep sequentially-numbered plates at their field offices.

How is the supply and distribution of available license plate numbers related to whether the plate is flat or embossed?