The Great Auto Parts Failure Fiasco Continues - Nothing Is Safe

Two of the same distributor rotors purchased from the same place. One will get the spark delivered as it's supposed to, the other is guaranteed to cause erratic spark, hard to diagnose drivability issues and in an extreme case, destroy the engine entirely.
Take this as a warning! The time to stock up on NOS and good used parts for your car is now!
#classiccar #tuneup #defects
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*SOCIAL MEDIA:

[rdpig]

I was talking to a guy in a parts store the other day and I said "You know what's one of the biggest problems getting old? You remember how good products used to be and how much less expensive those better products were".

[CaptainBuzzcooler]

I've been in the trade for 30 years. It's never been this bad.

[ryandavis]

This happens when the mold makers get lazy and make new molds using an old part as a pattern. This is called copy error. Rather than making a new mold or die from a print they simply make the new mold using an old part as the pattern. You do this enough times and you lose all tolerances. It like making photo copies from copies and copies. Clarity is lost with each cycle.

[chrisfreemesser]

How much ya wanna bet that the people/company that actually ended up being subcontracted to make that rotor have never seen an actual distributor or have any idea what kind of tolerances it needs to have to function correctly?

[steveo]

Today, my 3rd camshaft from Comp Cams destroyed my 3rd engine rebuild during the break in process. My engine builder told me he spoke to his parts supplier and this is what he said "Because of the supply chain issues manufacturers were unable to get the materials they needed to make products. So the manufacturers resorted to using cheaper more available materials and metals to keep up with production." End quote. I'm not the only one who's had camshafts wiping out engines. Car Wizard has had the exact same issue on his channel.

[two_number_nines]

I have started designing and 3d printing my own parts for literally anything. Had a hall sensor go on a 30 year old one, so I designed a new casing and put in a 5 cent bulk buy sensor. Helped me bypass the whole car repair scam industry-parts manufacturers, distributors salesmen, scalpers and hoarders. I had to make some adjustments later on, but its a great potential CV portfolio. You have to learn 3d printing, machining and circuit design to survive nowadays.

[TheWhitetailrancher]

Beings a car is made up of thousands of "Simple parts" the compounding factor" implied in this video could be catastrophic! Please pay attention to this video it is really quite important! Thanks for making another great video, Tony! There really are some of us that appreciate it!

[reaper]

You never should have thrown away the JB Weld that came with the new rotor.

[jwelchon]

WOW...I would have put that rotor cap on and never would have given it a thought. And then go insane trying to figure why it's running rough.

[charliep]

As a young tech in the resto/custom field, it make my job so much more difficult. Adds time to any given job and when any vehicle has a problem, the automatic assumption is that i made a mistake. Its ridiculous

[stuarthirsh]

When I was growing up in South Dade County in the 60s and 70s....There was a Genuine dyed in the wool..Machine Shop...Run by one Man...His name was Mitchell...hense Mitchell's Machine Shop....His son worked part time as well...Along with the Machine shop next door was every conceivable name Mitchell ran that too...He was a WW2 Vet and a man of few words....Anyone that put eyes on that shop couldn't help but be in utter amazement when you looked about...wall to wall...floor to ceiling was every type of on and on....When he was discharged after the Big One and went back to South Florida...he started buying up WW2 surplus equipment and Machine tools for pennies on the Dollar and by the 50s. ...had every fabrication Machine and then some stuffed into that warehouse structure....It was the legend that Mr. Mitchell could make from scratch pig iron everything and anything short of a Locomotive Right There...With his own two hands...
Why the Story?
You keep mentioning to make "lemonade out of lemons" concerning the crises we are going through....
If I were a younger Man....I'd gather up as much of this type of equipment as possible...steer away from digital controlled stuff....
Start learning the metallurgy peice of the equation....Get familiar with knowing how to build a kiln...a know....it's not that difficult to build a ", mini blast" furnace!! I'm not crazy...I saw all this done by one man in the early 70s....Say "Yes You Can"....Your going to have to....in order to keep things going....You'd be surprised....with a furnace....a nice billet of steel from a 66 Dodge Polara sub frame...a micrometer....a focused eye...steady hand....and the WILL and PRESERVERENCE....you can make just about
I wish I was 30 years younger and presented the I should say to you young ones that are worthy....it will be out of Dire coming....Go to work and do good Deeds Young Man....Time is not on your side.

[pdiz]

That's why I only order from trusted Mopar-specific sites like Mancini Racing or try to get OEM/NOS (yeah, it's been on the shelf for 50 years, but you know it's correct). I figure if I love my old car that much, buying a $30 rotor instead of a $6 one is better. May not be a guarantee of quality, but at least they know what a Road Runner is, right?

[randysinger]

I purchased several Totes old new old stock ignition parts from a parts store that went out of Business about 15 years ago, for cheap, looks like they are going to go up in Value !

[CODA-Improvements]

Most manufacturers have reduced their quality control tolerances to accept and send products that once were out of spec . Yet we still have shortages …

[billybradyjr]

It’s bad when you have to go up to the parts counter with your ohm meter because you’ve done been burnt so many times!

[jimhickey]

I've argued to many times with people saying that I have nothing to worry about, the government won't take away my old cars. I say they won't need to, they'll just make it so that the parts we need to keep them running are either not available or of such poor quality that it will become nearly impossible to drive what I choose. There is a huge reset going on today and the sooner people wake up to it the better, before it's too late, if it isn't already.

[Borkery]

as a sandblaster i get guys who ask me if they should replace this or replace that cuz its got alittle rust on it. stuff like old metal brake drums n such. and now i tell them NO. save it all. blast it all. its all good. you cannot get good metal anymore its all gone. if your hot rod project calls for new big metal parts you must really ask yourself if you want to risk getting shitty metal reproductions or just having a good ol tradesman rebuild it. The era of parts rebuilding is upon us. Clue for you TPU plastic used in 3dprinting makes GREAT gasket material. they even have high temp versions for making intake manifolds and stuff that can connect right up to hot metal. no 3d printable exhaust manifolds yet but you can 3d print a mold to use to form your cast so you can pour your own cast iron one! Going to be 3d printing some molds that i can pour Smooth-on brand liquid rubber into so i can make my own 1948 packard engine mount rubber donuts.

[sirkdopsah]

It's like the great Forest Gump once said..."Life is like a box of Auto parts...You never know what you will get"

[BigDevT]

Never had much faith in the whole "new parts are garbage" mindset until it happened to me. Went through 4 distributor condensers at Advance Auto until I got one that wasn't dead out of the box. Tested them all on multiple cars. Blows my mind. The future is worrying.

[mdcuddy]

This is nothing new for our times and previous times either. I also had a rotor from an auto parts store and looked at several boxes in the store for the differences in the manufacturing of the same rotor. The explanation I got was that the company purchased rotors from several different manufacturers but boxed them in the same box for the part store! I am sure some of us remember the cheap ignition parts in the plastic wrap that came with points, condenser, cap and rotor, plugs and wires, what a mess! Misfires, wire bleed through, burnt points, condenser failures were all a part of the life in the seventies and eighties. Thank you, TONY, for bringing this out again for us gearheads! Oh yeah, do you still arc your shoes for the Chrysler drum breaks to prevent brake pulsing? I did this for almost every drum brake system and it helped to prevent the pulsing.