That is the reason I like the local kentucky motors and oriellies. Most of those guys seem to know at least a little. Back when oriellies first showed up aropund here they scouted the local stores. I then started seeing guys that I knew and liked from parts styores working there. One of them told me that oriellies had taken notice of him and his knowledge and had offered him a job at thier florence store. It gave them a decent guy even if he wasn't the best at old school stuff. He will tell you that I help with his points type ignition knoweldge lol. But at least he was willing to learn from a customer and not dismiss me out of hand.

 

yeah there is a napa here that i like and a CRW parts store that deal with a few misc. parts. if for some reason they are drawin a blank or arent real sure on what im talkin about they just say well lets go out and look under the truck, hood etc.

 

I HATE AUTOZONE!

That is one place I will NEVER shop at again, and I don't know what rupe is talking about we have NO good looking girls working at our autozone, just a bunch of ignorant jack offs that don't know their own *** from a hole in the ground!

 

it dont really matter what parts store you go to you will always have idiots i have a people i will ONLY deal with

 

Come on man,,tell us what you really think!!

 

I must agre on the autozone thing. But the one in florence ky di have quite the little honey behind the counter lol. She wasn't very knowledgeable on parts but sur did look good walking back to look for them!

 

I agree with that! Here we have a NAPA very good with knoledge,just pricey,also the oldest parts store here Car Quest,better knoledge than napa but more pricey,,all the pretty girls run the delivery trucks!!

 

It doesn't matter the name on the store, but the employees in it. Locally, I boycott the Carquest due to the owner being an idiot, I will drive to the neigboring town typically before going there. The NAPA is still pretty good in the neighboring town. I get reports that the NAPA in the nearest city is not very good, but they are also fairly new. There are 3 Autozones in the city, one has the better crew, one has attitude troubles, and one just is a matter of getting the right person to get much of anything done.

I have been working in a parts store for 2 1/2 years, and I will admit, I know nothing about the Spicer numbering system, yet I have been working on these trucks for over 20 years. First one we had was a brand new 84, which is one of my projects now, been let go too far by my father. I have run into troubles getting the right ujoint for customers, but if they bring it in, I can always use the book to reference it. Sure, it takes time, but our info is only as good as the books the data entry people use, which happen to be the same ones on our shelves, and they also do not use the Spicer referencing system. If people are not exposed to it, there is no way to learn it. They don't have classes to learn all this stuff, it is generally through experience, and if the info is not there or not used, then there is no way to learn it. Just because it is somethign you know, does not mean you should assume everyone else knows it too. Spicer is a company, their methods may not be available to everyone any more, or companies have chosen to not use their referencing any more, so the lookup will not show it in such fashion.

 

I'm lucky, my neighbor works at advance and is actually a mechanic. I tell him what I need, he gives me a discount AND BRINGS IT TO MY HOUSE. I'm livin the dream, baby

 

My uncle has been a wholesale member at the one decent store in town for the last 20+ years, I just give him a ring, tell him what I want, and he places me the order at a 30% discount off retail. Walk in 20 minutes later, and I'm golden.

 

Well I'm not saying they *have* to know the spicer/saginaw etc designations. But I gave them Napa, Spicer and Neapco part numbers, and they still can't find anything??

The carquest store knew exactly what I was talking about when I called them. In under a minute they had the part off the shelf and verified the dimensions for me. What mostly gets me is the "The rust made yours bigger" and "this will fit because the computer says so, even though you've told me it's not what you need" attitude. A few years back I asked if they had a gas cap for my MG Midget. The reply was "nope, we can't get that.... just stick a rag in it" What kind of a suggestion is that?!

 

I can understand the issue there, would get me going to. With the NAPA numbers, as well as Carquest numbers, should have been able to cross reference and get what you need. Ran into that problem myself, customer came back with the u joint, so I ended up looking it up by the cap sizes to get them the right one. Unfortunately, not many will do that these days, if it isn't in the computer, then they can't help you...

 

Our local oriellys is good and remebers people as well. We went in ther a couple weeks ago for a coil. Told him it was for a 81 bronco with a 302. The guy looked at me and said "man don't fool with me. That bronco of yours is a diesel. It don't need no coil." I laughed at him and siad it was for my stepsons truck. Another counter guy told him it was a family thing with broncos lol.

 

haha ya if its somethin filter,engine,drivetrain related i go to a local parts strore bentons its been here for years and he carrys all wicks filters knows excactly what you need and excellent prices my air filter at autozone was a crappy fram they said it would be 30 bucks called bentons a wicks was 22 bucks cant beat ppl who are knowledgebale and good ppl and the owner of it knew my grandad he ran a service station for 30years so he gives me a little bit of a chip off im so mad at the other parts stores now anyway my brakes still arent done cause of them givin me the wrong brakes even when i said 3in