These "made in other country" replacement parts can really give a guy the red-***!! I'm not just talking about your local parts houses... the places online are horrible, too! In addition to Oreilly's, LMC Truck has been such a let down for me!

Just in this past 6 months, I've had to replace:
-Blower relay for AC in 77 F150... TWICE! One wouldn't engage, and the other wouldn't disengage! Funny how the original relay lasted 40 years and the new ones wouldn't last 40 days! One was made in China, the other in Mexico. Turned out, the relay that is used for my HVAC blower is the same relay used in 1970s Town Cars for the door locks... probably many others with power locks, too. Bought a used one on ebay and it's been just fine.
-HVAC vacuum operated controls. The original one started leaking. Bought a new one from the Bronco Graveyard guy 6 months ago. It started leaking two weeks ago... so now I gotta spend another 70 dollars for one of those.
-Front turn signal light socket on 79 F100... it lasted 4 months... the bulbs won't stay in there... pop out on one side. Had to get another... made in China.
-LED dome light bulb... wow that was a waste! Half of the LEDs just flicker. Talk about annoying! We know those aren't made here!
-Starter motor on both trucks... One truck got a free replacement under warranty. The other truck, the warranty ran out and a month later, so did the starter! That one I ended up taking to a very old local guy that rebuilds starters/alternators. He promised me none of his parts were from overseas for this Ford starter.
-And today- Radiator in the F100. Son of a &#$%^! The top tank is leaking at the seams. Bought it in August of '18. Called Oreilly's… they told me the new one will be here first thing in the morning. While they are good about the warranties and generally get parts fast, it still grinds my nuts that we cannot feel even the slightest amount of confidence in the parts we spend our hard-earned money on!

Very recently, I bought a handful of goodies from LMC... new radio antenna, wipers, rectangular air cleaner inlet hose, instrument cluster components (damn near nothing worked on the F100 dash). I wonder how long it was take for this stuff to fail? It all said made in Taiwan or China.

I was recently disappointed to see that the tires that the previous owner put on the F100 were made in Taiwan. Hmmm... just what I want... made in Taiwan tires!

Don't we make ANY parts in this country???

 

I like made in the US parts just as much as the next guy but the real issue isn’t where the parts are made it’s the US company bringing them in and their quality control. Somewhere, someone made the decision to forgo quality control to get parts for less and in the end it hurts the consumer but the consumer got to pay less for the crappy part in the first place.

 

D3TZ-19706-A .. Blower Motor Resistor - Use with factory installed integral A/C or Hi/Lo Comfort Vent System / Obsolete ~ 3 available NOS

1973/79 F100/350 // 1978/79 Bronco /// It was not used for any purpose on any FoMoCo Passenger Car.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D1FZ-13234-A .. Parklamp Socket w/pigtailed wires - twists into plastic body / Obsolete ~ Available NOS & reproduced.

Also available from the "Help" section of auto parts stores.

1974 F100/350 Parklamp & Styleside Taillamp from serial number T80,001 // 1975/79 F100/350 Parklamp & Styleside Taillamp // 1975/91 Econoline Parklamp // 1978/79 Bronco Parklamp.

1971/73 Pinto/Bobcat Parklamp // 1973 Torino/Ranchero/Mustang Parklamp // 1974 LTD Parklamp // 1976 Pinto/Bobcat Parklamp.

 

Can't imagine independent repair shops nor their customers are too happy about the situation either. Part of the reason labor, and/or parts, cost what it does is they have to factor in callbacks on every invoice. It has to pencil out one way or another, they aren't doing it for free.

 

Nailed it. When 'Shareholder added value' wins over integrity.

 

The old saying is “you get what you pay for” applies most of the time.

The other problem is and this applies to our older trucks like this....due to cost and or who is willing to make us some of these parts. Unless the demand is high at times...try and get the original maker to make the parts again. In some cases the original makers due to demand or age of the vehicles no longer are getting orders or getting orders in qty. to justify to keep making the parts. So tooling gets scrapped/thrown out etc....

So in some cases places like LMC etc...end up working with a overseas company because of labor cost and tooling costs to get replacement parts made. Yes at times the quality is very lacking but at times this is our only option.

Depending on what your looking for look for original parts in the box etc...from places like Ebay or from a guy stripping a truck for parts. When I stripped my 77 F350 (was rusted pretty bad) I sold what I didn’t need or think I would need and kept other parts. Things like wiper motors, odd/special type screws/fasteners etc...it can save you or a buddy more than you think.

 

You know there are bunch of other reproduction part companies out there? I would shop this list and leave who you have been getting parts from..... WAY at the bottom if you are not happy with them. You get what you pay for...usually. Cheap price ='s cheap part IMO. A guy we all know has the funniest things to say about "parts".

“The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.”

"Quality of parts are like oats. There are new oats and used oats. New oats can be bought at feed stores, used oats can be found out on the road, after the horse passes by."

But used oats, like used OEM parts are good enough I would reuse them on my truck, once I wash out the smell. lol

Parts Vendors & Resources
http://www.dennis-carpenter.com/trucks.php
Jeff's Bronco Graveyard
National Parts Depot:Ford Truck Parts & Accessories | 1948-1979
MAC's Antique Auto Parts
Blue Oval Truck Parts
Speedway Motors, Street Rod & High Performance Parts
The Early Ford Store-San Dimas,CA
Truck & Car Shop (Orange, CA): 48-86 Ford Trucks, 66-86 Ford Bronco
C&G Early Ford Parts: 32-79 Ford Trucks (Escondido,CA)
_______________________________________________
Sacramento Vintage Ford
Flashback F-100s: 48-2008 Ford Truck Parts
Vintage Pickup Truck Parts & Restoration Resources Directory
Green Sales Company - Vintage NOS & OEM Parts
http://www.lmctruck.com/ford/

 

John's F-Fun Hundreds is kaput.

You get what you pay for, buy the best and cry only once.

The problem is, most of the repro parts these sources sell...are made in the Orient.

 

The blower motor relay that I pulled from under the dash of my truck was part number D5AB-14C690-AA. Now, not to say that someone in the past hasn't changed it and put a different part number in there, but being that this truck was in the original condition it was when I got it, I figured it was likely the part that came from the factory from day one.. Since ND came up with this D3 number, I guess the ONLY logical reason is that I am in error.

Shortbox- I certainly don't mind in paying more for better quality... but man... it's just getting sooo hard to find that quality and it's aggravating.

 

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1350897-blower-motor-runs-without-key.html#post18766452

Oh yeah here it is … funny... his AC had the same relay as my relay

 

No part numbers marked on parts after 1956, just casting or ID engineering numbers, when applicable.

D2LY-14512-A .. Safety Relay / Marked with ID engineering numbers: D2LB-14C690-AA .. D5AB-14C690-AA or BA or CA / Obsolete

Used on 1972/79 Passenger Cars with: automatic seat back latch & power windows & power door locks (LTD/Marquis/Torino/LTD II/Cougar/Thunderbird)

Sunroof (Granada/Monarch/Versailles), automatic temperature control (Torino/LTD II).

And 1975/79 F100/350 with factory installed integral A/C, so where exactly did you find this relay?

Here's the 1976/79 pic: See 19706 .. This is what D3TZ-19706-A looks like. What does D2LY-14512-A look like? I didn't look, but I'll betcha it looks different.

 

The D5AB relay I replaced for the blower was located under the dash just below the glovebox door.... was VERY easy to get to. I traced out the connector wires... it was definitely for the AC blower.

If you had clicked the link in post #10, you would see YOUR post from another thread showing the EXACT D5AB relay that I was working with. The guy in that thread was having the same AC blower problems I was having. YOUR words in that post were that the D5AB relay had miscellaneous applications.... and oddly... you said one of them was AC Blower.

 

I listed D2LY-14512-A in that thread as well as in this one as a Safety Relay, said it was used with factory A/C, but did not say it was the blower motor resistor.

Post #11: I showed you a pic of what the D3TZ-19706-A blower motor resistor looks like. I already knew what the D2LY-14512-A relay looked like, because I sold dozens of them over the years.

 

Man, I am NOT dealing with the blower motor resistor. I don't even know why the resistor was mentioned. I have always been talking about the relay. I know what the relay looks like, too... I change it every time the fan won't shut off. Hopefully, now that I have a used FoMoCo relay, I won't have to change it again anytime soon. But you jump in these threads and seem to always think that what you say is scripture. The whole purpose of this thread was to comment on the poor quality of aftermarket parts... then you come along and start popping off with part numbers.

 

I'm sorry that I confused the relay with the resistor. I'm so used to people asking about the resistor, that is why I listed it.

And usually what I say is scripture because most people have no parts catalogs, no Ford parts experience.

How many Ford parts guys are members here? Currently two, but one retired recently and is traveling, so he hasn't been around in months. I retired in 1997.

When I joined FTE 11/4/2006, there was no parts guy, next to no one had a parts catalog, no one was decoding VIN's and etc.