And he may be right. This very situation is one of the reasons that I am done with restorations. I have shelves of crap new parts. Even parts for the late model stuff is a crap shoot as to whether it is much better than the worn out pieces they are replacing. Any time that I can, I get used parts from the yard. I am more likely to get good quality parts there than I am at the local auto supply.

I see new wheel bearings last less than 20k before they are howling. Replacement window regulators with motors much smaller than the OE and much slower going up. Some bulbs don't last a year. Tires that are completely egg shaped. And not just cheap brands. The last set of Mickey Thompsons I mounted were terribly out of round.

I used to only buy brands like Moog, TRW, Federal Mogul, Timken etc. But now, so much of that is made overseas and is often no better than a house brand.

But I do like the guy's shirt. Enough so that I have one just like it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yOzQI80-k0

The real question is how UT got so many smucks to follow him? UT is about as average as average can get for a mopar guy, and thats being nice.

I agree. Parts are junk crap shoot now. So frustrating. Use to be able to buy Moog and other brands and know you were good. Not anymore. Nothing is a guarantee anymore except NOS and you'll pay the price. I just keep an eye for NOS stuff for my stuff even if I don't need it now and if the price isn't too outrageous I buy it. I have rotors for my Diplomat Police car (wish I had the big finned drums for rear but the NOS ones on there now aren't very old), and many other NOS parts that are small enough to store. I've had Glen-Ray rebuild radiator. I'll hope for best with Milodon water pumps. I had a headlight switch last for 30 years and start going bad. Made the mistake of buying an aftermarket one and after a couple of months it started melting and could've burnt my car to pieces if I hadn't caught it soon enough. I forgot what the brand was. Went to Feebay and got a NOS one for not all that much more and it's been working great for 3 years. Even adjusting the dimmer on the aftermarket one felt like it was lubricated with sand, and the NOS one is nice and smooth.

I will disagree with one thing the guy in the video said; he said that in normal driving balancing the rear tires doesn't matter. It does matter. You can feel out of balance rears at highway speed. And they are tough on the shocks too with the extra beating they put on the valving.

I still think there are good parts out there, but they aren't from the old, traditional lines that we grew up with. King bearings, Cometic gaskets, and Rare Parts suspension parts come to mind.

We have been sourcing electronic components from China for certain USA clients for the last 25 years, and have learned a few things..
China has the knowledge knowhow and capability to build quality parts but...
Often shortcuts are taken due to:
* Complaints from the buyer to make cheaper
* Inexperienced sources
* Low quality materials, mainly recycled garbage

Within the Chinese culture is their motivation to make things faster and cheaper, and this is why U will find low quality, marginal parts.
The only secure way to get good quality is to work with established sources and to have your own QA inspection teams.
We have been dealing with certain factories for many years and they know very well how to make quality components.
Unfortunately in today's market the major push is for price so the end-result are components that don't fit right and/or only last a short time.
Sad but true...

Just my $0.02..

One can't approach parts purchases nowadays as though they're gonna be OEM-equivalent, let alone perfect.
Good used - and good luck with that - or NOS, or a quality manufacturer like DMT (71 TA here) are the only hope.
Americans arguably brought this on ourselves...how many times for example do you see a post here looking for "cheapest price" ?
But I know the aggravation of paying up for an item that initially looks good, but is either a problem to install, or fails quickly.

Is that the same knucklehead that said putting frame connectors on a unibody mopar was not a smart and damaged the car (spot welds)?

Yes there are still some. Remflex header gaskets. Milodon water pumps as I mentioned and I believe still Timpken sealed bearing hubs. But for the most part

Sure he's an average mopar guy. But he's an average mopar guy with a YouTube channel.

Regardless the reputation of the messenger his message is spot on. Trus0ted name brands of the past have gone into junk mode. Dorman, Moog, Wells even Felpro. 30 years ago aftermarket replacement parts were better than OEM. Now many times OEM is mandatory as the aftermarket parts are simple crap. But OEM parts have taken a dive too. Louis Altezan who owns a shop in Louisianna describes OEM parts as "The best. of the worst."

there are a crap ton of average mopar dudes with youtube channels.

I am also glad to be winding down business wise as the availability and quality are in the tank. The last serious restoration work i took on is 99.9% done and I will not be taking on anymore at that level.

Third rate car company makes parts that last 50 years. Replacements don't last one. Sad. Public corporations destroy this country. A private company can concentrate on a great product, but once you go public, it's only about shareholder value and quarterly growth. Quality, research, and development cuts into short term profits. Even someone like Steve Jobs was shown the door at the company he founded because they thought he was spending too much on changing the world. I don't think companies even own factories overseas. They just send specifications around and see who will make it the cheapest. Then the take that price, and see who wants their business if they can make it even cheaper. Quality is never part of the equation.

Making a statement like that discredits him in a big way. Why would I watch if he’s coming off with something like that?

I will second that. Maybe bigger trucks with floating axles can absorb the vibrations better but any passenger car tire should be balanced.

I actually got FIRED from Kal-Tire for double checking my work. I got called a "Time Waster" because I would spin the tire up a second time after putting on fresh weights to ensure I got "Double Zeros" on the second spin to ensure the customer got a truly balanced tire. I was told to: "Quit wasting time - wheel balancing doesn't need to be exact."

It was also barked at me that "Nobody can feel a half an ounce" which I replied: "I could. And if that's the attitude around here, I'll NEVER bring my toys here for anything!"

Got hauled into the office. Got let go the next day. (Barely worked there for a week. It was and probably still is a "Little Boys" Club)

Funny because when I've worked with REAL MECHANICS at the Canadian Tire chain, I was praised for double checking my work and giving the customer a quality job. Still friends with one of the mechanics I worked with over 15 years later. We had some GOOD times at that store.


But I do agree with Uncle Tony. It's a 4 out of 10 world out there now.

I remember a photo of a wall tile that one of my old Dutch buddies sent me over once, it read: "The bad taste of poor quality will linger in your mouth long after the sweet joy of cheap price wears off!".

At that time we were talking about IT project work, the mad rush to "3rd party outsourcing" that everyone in the industry was trying to out-run the other guys in, and of course as the tile writing pointed out, the sad results that creates.

Some companies have recognized this "fool's gold", many others either are unable to, or simply refuse to because their business model is simply based on being the "cheapest guy" on the block!

I learn a long time ago that you get what you pay for, if your diligent on your choices and lucky

Low quality parts manufacturing greatly hurt mainland China from 1947 to 1979, especially “The Great Leap Forward”.

Chinese coal mines were having problems with poor quality Russian and local parts when I visited in 1981. Chinese Managers prefered to keep 1930s British and USA machines going over new, and praised British and USA quality. I also heard this same attitude at a German built beer brewery, and at a factory still building coal fired locomotives.

Now in 2022 I worry that the Chinese are building better parts for military weapons, and have witnessed this at Harbor Freight Tool stores.

I also worry that USA industry cannot any longer build the volume of weapons needed to defend the country, and at the extremely high cost per item.

Add these changes together and it is easy to predict a “terrible reckoning”
is likely to happen.

Can`t seem to win anymore. At one time you would usually get what you pay for but nowadays not so much. If it isn`t the junk defective products then it`s the poor service or it will get damaged during shipping from poor packaging.

I just had this discussion with a guy at work this morning. He needs a CVT for his Mazda and he was trying to find the best rebuilt or remanufactured unit. I told him I would definitely go with a low mileage junkyard factory build over any rebuilt unit, especially since the junkyard part was about a third of the cost of a rebuilt one.

My experience with rear tire balance seems to be different than his. But I learned something from his experience with the U joints. I would have never thought to check that area. Nobody's perfect and sometimes important things can be learned from surprising places.

I ALWAYS spin the tire after applying the weights. Only rarely do they need any additional attention. As often as not, they just need one of the weights moved a small amount rather than more weights added.

But it is obvious that some tire shops do give the tires a check spin. There are multiple weights in several places around the rim.

I have used Rare Parts on a few projects, nice stuff. Their quality seems comparable to the old Moog stuff. I’ll try King Bearings, never used them, same with the Cometic. Thanks.

His experiences are stuck in a bit of a time capsule and don't always relate to modern vehicles. I bet in the days of soft compound, tall aspect ratio tires on leaf springs, you could get away with not balancing rear tires (until you rotated them). Its not that they were not out of balance, you just didn't feel it much. Modern low profile tires on a modern suspension, no way.

I watch him for the entertainment value, which can be funny, Like his name implies, he is like that old Uncle you had that has an opinion on everything.

He does resonate on a few topics and sadly with the current state of aftermarket parts, buyer beware.

for the most part.
there is No money in a cure.
the old days of building stuff to last is gone.
UT is great for folks who want to learn something they didn't know(myself included)
is it 100% spot on, maybe not.
growing up in the 70's all the cheap crap was made in Japan. Now china. who's next?
look up how and why USA outsourced everything.

On the topic of YouTube automotive personalities takes on part quality. Car Wizard said he’s not taking any more jobs involving engine rebuilding now until the quality issues are resolved. He said he’s been having cams wiped out shortly after installing rebuilt engines recently due to bad lifters and camshafts. The last engine he had done he tracked down NOS parts for it, since he won’t trust new parts now.
We’ll see what he does if Hoovie brings him a new purchase needing an engine.

Gonna admit you are right on the U-joints. Blew up my Mustangs rear at 50k and got a new unit. That thing vibrated at every speed. Turned it back in for another new unit from a major supplier. Now it only vibrates at 70mph. We did all sorts of stuff on the first replacement including flipping the shaft 180. Finally went with a Ford Racing one piece driveshaft. Still a vibration at 70mph but it needs it 5k covered fluid change now. Thinking of just checking the gaps. I know UT says the caps are that way for bigger ford c- clips, but hey, you never know. Besides checking it out would take what, 10 minutes maybe.

Kind of funny Steve. Bought Timkin's a couple of years ago for the Barracuda and when I looked at where they were from, some from Germany, some from Mexico. And I was elated. At least not China!!

i just bought some timkins for a bridgeport quill, and those things were made in bangladesh !!
timkins were in it to start with, and i figured i would replace the bearings with the same brand.
i told the counter guy if these things went bad in a couple years, they were coming back !

there are some countries that can produce a quality product at reasonable prices. I wouldn't worry about the Timkens or Bangladesh

Seeing that will always make me laugh out loud. Especially when it's a high-dollar car like a Camaro that somebody has put WAY too much money into but there's a Kraco cassette player hacked into the dash and at least two wheels with multiple weights.

Or when you see a wheel with a weight PAINTED to match the wheel, but then fresh lead weights on another location. Bless their hearts.

We balance a fair amount of wheels/tires here. Two things that I constantly rail about; multiple weights around a rim and tires that are not round. And we see a lot of both. When we buy tires, it is only matched sets of used from the wrecking yards. Any more, I try to order two sets because often as not, one set will have a tire or two or three that are egg shaped. So back they go. For our personal vehicles, I try to only use Michelin Defenders. Great tires. Very little weight needed and they are consistently ROUND!

I just bought 4 oem 18x8 mopar rims for my parts runner, ordered 4 low end tires, 2 needed nothing and 2 needed less the 1 oz.

The sky is not falling. Complain all we like but it it what it is. Dont seem to stop people from buying that new intake that always needs work or the overseas rods that most need a lil work from the box...heads...ect.... so why are we shocked?

Some just need to retire and move on as they have put there time in but things always change. If this were 1922 vs 2022 what would old men be talking about in there rocking chairs?

Things are not designed for longevity these days by design, why keep a car on the road for 20 years when you can make them buy new every 10? Why do things with a 2 year warranty designed to last 3 years?

Most is a business model, people are still going to need to drive no matter how short the service life of parts.

Get up happy every day and let the little bumps in the road stay little.

Most parts are low quality because of us.

Most people when given the option will choose the cheapest part available.

What you call complaining, is information sharing to others. Information is knowledge and knowledge can be empowering. For some. But that is dependent on and reflective of individual outlooks. Those that see this post as complaining are more likely to dismiss it. If it is taken as information, then something can be learned and those problems possibly avoided. But then you have to have an open mind and a positive attitude to gain that advantage.

And not surprisingly, you are the only one talking about the sky falling.

When I brought my wifes daily driver vw in for new tires the guy commented that there wasn`t any weights on any of the rims. I laughed because I removed them all prior to keep from having multiple weights on each rim. It seems a lot of the guys won`t remove the stick on weights before balancing.

Like all former magazine writers, they had to move on to the video format or starve.

Some have done it better than others. Tony was better in print.

Seriously, what do some of these people do? Toss the package from rooftop????

You can still get good quality race car stuff these days, but it seems you have to go to, what I almost have to call, boutique shops. Places still privately owned, likely by the guy who started it. And you have to pay for it. Even they have trouble finding raw materials and supplies to build their stuff.

The places that were always reliable, but have been gobbled up by PE firms and conglomerates are hit or miss these days. Mostly miss, although some of them still do some of the good high end stuff in house.

MSD, Edelbrock, a number of the engine parts people come to mind.

I still have some involvement in traditional auto parts. Most of it is Chinese. The "good" stuff comes from India, Mexico, Taiwan, anywhere but PRC. Not much USA made stuff in the chain auto parts stores. Even the name brand stuff. National, Moog, most spark plugs, electronics, brakes, you name it. Quality is hit or miss as well.

I must be in the minority. You go to Rock auto and I never buy the cheap part. At least buy the middle of the road one.

I think I tuned out Drunkle Tony the first video I stumbled across. He sums up something I hate, which is old timers feeling entitled to being experts just because they are old timers. Times change, companies change, technology changes, etc, you've gotta keep up, can't just expect the same answers from 30 years ago to still be correct and relevant.

I've not had any major problems with parts that I can think of, none worth complaining about anyway. Anything I buy, I research first. I'll look up parts on Rockauto for example and cross reference the part numbers on Summit, Jegs, Amazon etc to check out reviews and comments. I learned a long time ago not to make purchase on name brand alone. Maybe the Moogs and Edelbrocks all relied too much on their name while they were outsourcing production of their parts overseas while keeping their name brand pricing. I've had good results with parts from companies I'd never heard of before but had good review ratings and positive comments.

So I don't think everything is defective, so much as some people's purchasing philosophy is defective.

Researching parts is a good idea but only works up to a point. When you have a business and need multiple parts every single day, how much time would it take to research every single one? That means multiple brands of multiple parts. Probably work for personal use but not really practical in business.

If I can buy it from Mopar or a OE manufacturer I do and it serves me well. It is the parts I can`t get from OE any longer that I seem to run into issues with. Napa has gone to crap. They seem no better than Autozone or Advance or the others. I was surprised when I bought some 5/16 gas line from Autozone recently it was made in the US.

Fair point, might consider doing the same with overall brands instead of individual parts. When I went through my suspension couple of years ago, all the factory type parts I used brand Mevotech if I recall, instead of MOOG, based on cost and overall ratings of the various parts I needed. All came packaged and finished nicely, no problems with fit and no quality issues have arisen so far.

What I am saying is "everything is defective" is a cop out. I mean if one truly believed that they would either give up on repairing cars and buy a horse and tell your customers to do the same, or try developing their own parts line to make a fortune with parts that aren't defective out of the box.

As a guy who works on his own cars himself--by choice--we ARE in the minority.

Most people don't have the knowledge, skill, time, or interest to do it themselves. These people take it to a shop and just want it fixed as cheaply as possible.
The rest of the people who DO work on their cars themselves often do it because they can't afford to take it to a shop--they have no choice but to do their own work. These people obviously will pinch pennies as well.

Don't know much about Tony as I haven't had a lot of time to do much of anything but work and come here to relax a bit (that will be changing soon )
I agree with a lot of what you said , but will make the following comments:
Do keep in mind, along with age comes wisdom
Correct, But quality shouldn't have, but in many cases has
I do the same, but be aware there are companies that "for a fee" will "BLANKET" post reviews for a product
I'll agree again and say it really P's me off that they do so, especially on pocketing the difference

I used to work for an aftermarket brake company. I can attest that customers primarily chose based on price. My company advertised highlighting our quality and mostly made in USA parts. Our business was starting to suffer from the lower priced offshore competition anyway.
Around 2005 they started throwing in the towel, shifted manufacturing out of the country, mostly Asia, and mothballed our plants here.
I don’t have a high opinion of any aftermarket brake parts now. I wish I’d stocked up on more parts when I worked there to have a good stash of NORS parts!
I went to a trailer store last week to buy tires. The guy there told me everything except Good Year is Chinese now.
I needed a mounted tire and wheel, so bought it there. Then installed it and took the wheel and old tire I removed to Discount tire and had a GoodYear tire installed.
It was about 30% more than the Chinese brands. I need to go out and install it, and then get another new tire. I guess I’ll get another GoodYear, but it’s hard justifying spending 40-50 bucks extra.
I’d like to think the GoodYear is higher quality, but the guy at the trailer place thought them all similar quality.

I hate to say this but I think GoodYear is Chinese also. One of my sons who works in the tire shop at a large coal mine tells me there are no, no, quality trailer tires available from anyone. Period. I've run LT tires on my trailer for decades and it looks like I'll continue doing that.

I was told that mastercraft LT tires make good trailer tires, for a truck they suck though.

I absolutely can't stand this! I have boomers offer unsolicited advice all the time that absolutely have no clue about newer tech. Trying to "pass down their knowledge" that they don't realize has long been surpassed. The "flipping the pistons around to gain horsepower" B.S. is infuriating!

I had one guy telling me how much I needed another carb for the car to run good. I went out and busted off a low 10 and he decided it was best to shut up.

The Goodyear Endurance is made in usa (at least it was as of 12 months ago when i was shopping for them). I think thats the only one.

Just go to Tire Rack and find the tire you're interested in (if they carry it) then click on "Specs" and it will tell you the country of origin at the far-right column.


https://www.tirerack.com/tires/Spec.jsp?tireMake=Goodyear&tireModel=Endurance&isSEO=true

Bottom line as stated by many: more people "buy Price" and there is some truth to "you get what you pay for" for the most part. A friend once said to me a long time ago when there was a question on why something we were talking about was more expensive than the same thing we were comparing. He said, "you know bologna is a lot cheaper than prime rib and why is that they are both meat???" If you want to see one example of some of the "hidden reasons" why some vehicles cost more than others the next time you are at a new car show or car dealership start looking at the grade or quality of the fasteners used to hold the car together, Compare a US or European vehicle's grade fasteners to the Pacific Rim built vehicles. Much higher grade and quality fasteners on US/Euro vehicles. I opened the trunk of a certain Pacific Rim car, and I never knew there was a lower grade fastener than the usual grade 4 and grade 7, the trunk latch was held in place by a grade 3 bolt. Then don't get me started on stamped metal door hinges that are weld to the door frames versus forged steel hinges bolted to the frame with high quality and grade torx or Allen type bolts on USA and Euro vehicles. I told my wife about the low-quality fasteners used on PR vehicles and she was surprised. I also said the next time you fly somewhere and you look out the window and you see a grade 4 or grade 7 bolt holding on the engine or wing RUN FOR THE EXIT!!!!

Guess which is a cheaper stamped steel Pacific Rim manufactured door hinge and fastener and which is the stronger forged door hinge and higher quality torx more expensive fastener?

"Do keep in mind, along with age comes wisdom".......................


then please explain why the older i get, the dumber i find out i really am.............

Oh thank god I'm not the only one who has experienced this. I fully expected to get flame roasted to a smoldering crisp for saying that. I think the UT video that immediately turned me off was when he was doing a run down of SBM heads and said something along the lines of "these smog heads are obviously junk" because he couldn't stuff his fat finger all the way down the intake port like he did on an 340 X head. He happened to be holding the much sought after "308" head that Larry Shepard says is the best of the SBM factory heads (obviously if max flow is the goal the intake side needs some work to compare to old 2.02 valve X or J head). Sorry Tony, I'm gonna trust the Mopar Performance engine bible and the guy who designed Mopar heads for decades more than someone with just a garage and a youtube channel.

Wisdom comes with age, only when you continually learn from others, and of course from your own mistakes. When you think you've accumulated all the knowledge that will ever be out there by the time you're thirty and anything after that is stupid because it doesn't match what you heard before, then you are just getting older not wiser. And you end up shouting at people to flip their pistons around, drive around with their truck tailgate down, only use overdrive on the freeway, and only using a purple shaft cam in a mopar, etc.

As for some of the other comments regarding getting what you pay for, etc.. I don't think that is entirely true that people shopping for low cost items is to blame for "everything being defective now". A lot of the company names we used to associate with quality have long since been bought up by corporate conglomerations, that means it is no longer a guy making bushings at Moog who determines quality standards and sets costs, its bean counters in accounting and spinsters in marketing who get huge bonuses to make those decisions.

I totally agree everything is made with junk steel i live between both Timken plants and know engineers from both plants there are no tapered bearings made by Timken steel plants (except for a few military contracts) torrington bearings are the only US made bearing and they are in Timken boxes! Because they were bought by Timken.
Moog and and your well know parts are made overseas.
One guy told me Japan actually has the best steel.
I did some research on hydraulic roller cams and was told by one knowledgeable man that's why the hydraulic roller came out was because of junk steel. I worked in a factory building excavators and have seen quality go down every year.
Which make me nervous to even buy a stroker kit !!
But it's cheaper and we can make a bunch more money!!

Well dang sorry to hear I can't count on Timken anymore. About five years ago or so I need hub bearings for a '10 Charger and they were recommended still by people on Charger forum.

This quote has already been posted on the forum I do believe but is worth another posting

"When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years".

-Mark Twain

Um, speaking of Timken, maybe someone with an old Power Wagon should be these oldies. I just ran across them looking at trucks. States $50 but I don't know about shipping.

https://cleveland.craigslist.org/pts/d/chardon-dodge-4x4-front-wheel-bearings/7523220204.html

Some of the greatest philosophers in history like Confucius, Socrates and Ben Franklin made statements to the affect that a truly wise person is not wise because of how much he knows, but because of how much he realizes he doesn’t know.
Or as I have told myself for some time, the older I get the more I find I don’t know.
By those definitions there are not too very many wise people in our civilization, as almost everyone I know claims to know everything!
At any rate, whether in people, entertainment or in product quality, there does seem to be a race to the bottom happening that accelerates every year.

I'm an old guy and if the younger generation doesn't want to hear what I know, please ask me to shut up and I'll gladly oblige you.

We use a ton of Timken stuff in the printing business and most of them come from eastern Europe. Still pretty good stuff, for the most part. We do see a lot of parts that are DOA right out of the box, from the same countries, and it really complicates the maintenance end of the business.....

Reading through this discussion reassures me that “The Wisdom of Moparts” has not gone away...

as to the mark twain quote, he is spot on !
as the older we got, i realized the old man was way smarter than i gave him credit for !
as he was so fond of saying when i would be driving a nail, miss and hit my thumb, thereby creating "new words" : "huh ! i didn't feel a thing !"

So true. They taught us well! One of my dad's favorite things to say to us kids when we weren't doing enough around the house; "This isn't a Hotel you know"!

Dual point rotors have always been hit or miss, even in the old days, out of 10 you might get 2 that fit right. I have an original nos rotor I bought in the 70s that is so loose it falls off the shaft, and another from advance-BWD from1992 that is so tight you can hardly get it on. It appears at this point there are 2 styles made, neither better than the other. Check them after they get hot too. On u-joints you should only use Spicer like most driveline shops, Tony is right on the c-clips, in fact one brand of joints in the 70s and 80s all used the thicker clips, Ford or Mopar. Most people and shops could not install a u-joint right if their life depended on it, but that is another looong story.

Hmm. That wouldn't be a Mechanics joint by any chance?