Re: AI after market parts

Posted by jdemaris on December 12, 2006 at 06:46:34 from (66.218.11.157):

In Reply to: AI after market parts posted by SamMI on December 12, 2006 at 04:01:46:

I've been using them with no complaints. I think your're going to find in some cases - that their parts appear to be inferior quality to OEM - but . . . the newer OEM stuff also appears to be of inferior quality when compared to OEM parts few years back. E.g., a lot of over-the-counter parts from Deere et. al. now come from China, India, Bosnia, etc. . And, many Chinese companies are known for - once having the tooling setup - making the same parts and selling under different brand names.
My point is - it's not easy to predict what you're going to get - over-the-counter from a tractor dealer anymore. Same goes with car/truck companies.
Last year - I rebuilt the engine in a friend's Deere 350 dozer with A&I parts. He ruined it a week later - mainly because he forgot to plug in his block heater - and wanted it started in a hurry at 10 below zero. So, he loaded it with ether and broke all three pistons to pieces. I was pretty digsusted - especially because it was a friend involved - and I'd done the job as a favor - i.e. no money involved. I pulled the engine part, found the pistons shattered - and blamed the cheap A&I engine parts. Shortly after - we conducted a "test." I took one of his old Deere pistons alongside a new A&I piston and tried to smash them with a sledge-hammer. The older Deere piston was somewhat tougher - maybe forged instead of cast? So, this time we bought pistons over-the-counter from Deere. They appeared to be just like the A&I pistons and were not the same quality as years back. But, we didn't smash any new ones to test. I did a quick job of putting new pistons, rings , and sleeves - entire job was done in 5 hours. He promised to use the block heater. A month later - he ruined it again - I think he's getting senile. A first he swore he hadn't used ether. Then his daughter came out and told me her dad used two full cans of ether - on a below-zero morning - because her truck was stuck in the snow and he was in a hurry.
Nothing like friends? He's in his late 70s - and I think he is having a few thought-problems. I pulled the engine apart again - and found the Deere OEM pistons just as broken as the former A&I. I told him this was - the absolute last time I'd fix the engine - and we insalled A&I again. He swore he'd never use ether again and I haven't heard from him since. Maybe he forgot my phone-number? My point is - my gut instinct was to blame A&I and it appears I was wrong.
On another engine - last year I replaced just one piston and sleeve in my IH B-275 along with new rings on the other three pistons. I bought the parts over the counter from my local Case-IH dealer. They came in Mahindra boxes with IH stamped over the Mahindra name. Why was I only replacing one piston and sleeve? Because I was being really cheap at the time - and I was kind of mad at the tractor. Then later - I had some glow-plug problems and finished off a worn engine with ether. Anyway, a few months later - the tractor got really hard to start. Pulled the head off - and the three cylinders that did not get the new piston - had no top rings left. So, this time - I bought an complete engine piston & sleeve set from this website. The parts looked to be exactly the same as what I got over-the-counter from IH. They fit fine, it runs fine, time will tell, I guess.

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