Junk, crazy parts!!!!!!!!

A little three cylinder diesel- Shibaura/Perkins/Caterpillar has been giving me fits. I couldn't get rings to fit the pistons from the engine machine shop which ground the crankshaft, nor from Cat. New pistons from the machine shop estimated at $200 a piece! (ring sets were $28) Ring sets from Cat $81. New pistons(with everything) from Cat, also $81 each??? So I got Cat pistons. One ring missing, had to wait for that. Finally, get the head on. Interference with number 3 @ TDC! This was the throw and rod which were machined. This drove me nuts for a couple of days, when I sought different remedies, until I finally saw it. I'd had the head on and off several times, with the two different gaskets which came in the set(which came from the machine shop) Turns out the head gaskets were made wrong. Number 3 was hitting one side of the fire ring, as the gasket was offset to one side! Now waiting on Cat for delivery.

This all reminded me, as the other day SVcummins was replacing the valve cover gasket on an MF/Perkins, that a year ago I was doing about the same. Got a gasket from Agco for a 4.248 Perkins. I couldn't make it fit at all. So the dealer got one right from Perkins, which was totally different, and correct!

In years past I don't remember being cursed with bad parts. This is bad for everyone. The vendor, the mechanic, the shops, the customer, etc.

Agree its a problem. When you consider that there are more and more different models of equipment all the time, and most are only built for a couple years. Also, American culture has moved to much more employment turn over. So, the guy in purchasing ordering the parts to stock the warehouse shelves has no clue what he is working with. Unfortunately there is no good solution.

Last fall I had a problem with a Deere head gasket for a two banger not fitting. Three stud holes were off center. A
Felpro gasket from the aftermarket fit perfect. The new parts we get from the dealer aren’t what they used to be.

I imagine labor is the issue today. Someone has to dismantle the tractors for parts and the business has to pay high wages for it so they have to pass the cost along.

Moresmoke - Having been "One of Those Guys in Purchasing" for over 30 years I'll be nice and just suggest you trade places with the purchasing guy for a week. EVERYTHING is driven by a part number which may or may not have a correct description loaded into the computer by Engineering. Been my experience that Engineering creates hard and fast rules that everybody else has to obey and sees them only as guidelines to be followed or not at their own discretion. Do you Really need more than one headgasket design for an engine?

Perkins having been bought by CAT everything had to be dumped into CAT's database in a big hurry. Mistakes happen, shortcuts were probably taken. Parts guys order the wrong parts which creates a demand Purchasing has to fulfill.

I started out working my way up the ranks at IH 40 years ago. Had a perfect record of service part delivery for three years I was in Material Scheduling.

I'm not picking on "the guy in purchasing", just stating that that is how it is. I have the position of sorting out the mess between the retailer, purchasing, and engineering. It is great fun! We are about to lose our last guy that was here during the 90's, so now all questions about the "old" stuff will take a lot more digging to find the answers.

And then there are the days we just shoot ourselves in the foot for no apparent reason. I've seen the same part shipped to 3 different dealers who reported that it didn't fit correctly. That part belonged to a prototype machine and should not have been in parts stock yet. But still managed to get shipped and returned multiple times.

(quoted from post at 08:50:49 04/15/18) I'm not picking on "the guy in purchasing", just stating that that is how it is. I have the position of sorting out the mess between the retailer, purchasing, and engineering. It is great fun! We are about to lose our last guy that was here during the 90's, so now all questions about the "old" stuff will take a lot more digging to find the answers.

And then there are the days we just shoot ourselves in the foot for no apparent reason. I've seen the same part shipped to 3 different dealers who reported that it didn't fit correctly. That part belonged to a prototype machine and should not have been in parts stock yet. But still managed to get shipped and returned multiple times.

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Maybe your "returned goods dept." needs to smarten up a bit.
Spend a few minutes to determine why it came back instead of throwing it back on the stock shelf.

good thing you get all that support from the manufacturer....