Bern
Well-known Member
- Location
- Mount Vernon, WA
Many of you know how I like to complain about the prices that NH likes to charge for parts. Well, it gets worse - check this out:
So on my 6000 engine rebuild, I thought I'd throw my dealer a bone and order the engine block cup plugs from him, since they're kind of an odd size (2-1/16"), and NAPA doesn't make them easy to find in their catalog system. I believe that this is the same plug that is used for the 134 and 172 engines, NH part # 7HA6266A. Even though I paid almost $7 each for them, I bought them out of a sense of loyalty to my former employer. Plus, they help me out once in a while with the occasional manual or special tool. So, I didn't mind too much paying that price for 6 plugs.
I go to install these things today, and the press fit on the first one was extremely light. I've driven in literally hundreds of soft plugs over the years, and I immediately knew something was not right. I grabbed my calipers and measured the OD of all of the remaining new, uninstalled plugs, and they were all pretty much exactly the same diameter as the hole!! (2.062"). I then ran down to NAPA and bought some from them, and they are all about .013" larger in diameter, which seems about right if they are to be a press fit.
Now for the worst part: Not only did I pay 7 times as much for the "genuine part", the ones from NAPA are made in the USA, while the ones from NH are made in China. But it gets even worse - the Chinese plugs have the NH part number stamped right in them! So, it appears that NH decided to contract with the Chinese to make plugs for them for about 20 cents cheaper than they could have bought them straight from Sealed Power for! Not only did they charge me 5 times as much, they give me inferior quality to boot, while saving themselves a few cents a piece on the part.
In a worst case scenario, if I had not caught this, one of those plugs could have popped out while I had this thing on the dyno under full load. How many of you want to bet that NH would never have stood behind that little boo-boo. My opinion of New Holland has dropped even lower than it already has been - I think Henry Ford would roll over in his grave if he knew about this.
Rant over now, back to work.
So on my 6000 engine rebuild, I thought I'd throw my dealer a bone and order the engine block cup plugs from him, since they're kind of an odd size (2-1/16"), and NAPA doesn't make them easy to find in their catalog system. I believe that this is the same plug that is used for the 134 and 172 engines, NH part # 7HA6266A. Even though I paid almost $7 each for them, I bought them out of a sense of loyalty to my former employer. Plus, they help me out once in a while with the occasional manual or special tool. So, I didn't mind too much paying that price for 6 plugs.
I go to install these things today, and the press fit on the first one was extremely light. I've driven in literally hundreds of soft plugs over the years, and I immediately knew something was not right. I grabbed my calipers and measured the OD of all of the remaining new, uninstalled plugs, and they were all pretty much exactly the same diameter as the hole!! (2.062"). I then ran down to NAPA and bought some from them, and they are all about .013" larger in diameter, which seems about right if they are to be a press fit.
Now for the worst part: Not only did I pay 7 times as much for the "genuine part", the ones from NAPA are made in the USA, while the ones from NH are made in China. But it gets even worse - the Chinese plugs have the NH part number stamped right in them! So, it appears that NH decided to contract with the Chinese to make plugs for them for about 20 cents cheaper than they could have bought them straight from Sealed Power for! Not only did they charge me 5 times as much, they give me inferior quality to boot, while saving themselves a few cents a piece on the part.
In a worst case scenario, if I had not caught this, one of those plugs could have popped out while I had this thing on the dyno under full load. How many of you want to bet that NH would never have stood behind that little boo-boo. My opinion of New Holland has dropped even lower than it already has been - I think Henry Ford would roll over in his grave if he knew about this.
Rant over now, back to work.