Why can't they get it right. Here is another example of poor tolerances in reproduction manufacture. I recently bought a new windshield washer pump. It fit perfectly on my existing wiper motor, and squirted just fine when asked. However, whenever the wipers were on the washer pump would push out a small amount of fluid (kind of like an 80 year old man).
I had another pump handy and fitted that on and it worked fine, so I knew there was nothing wrong with the motor, wiring or switch.
After a few hours of playing with the pump, on and off the car, I finally noticed that during the wiper operation, the piston acutator plate (see attached diagramme for reference) was being pushed by the cam follower pin and moving about 1/4 millimeter on each stroke.
I took the pump off the car and ground the end of the ellongated hole in the pump actuator plate with a dremmel tool to relieve the action of the cam follower pin. It now works correctly.
My frustration is that I would gladly have paid an additional $20 to get a part that was made with the proper tolerances in order to save me many hours of fussing.

 

GM put millions of engineering hours into their products.

Materials, tolerances, fit, finish...all done with quality in mind.

The repro market is predominately in Asia, usually to the low bidder.

The amount of engineering is minimal, and materials and tolerances are not as good as GM did it.

I go out of my way to buy used GM stuff, and have it rebuilt/refurbished.

You are miles ahead going this route.

My list of refurbished/rebuilt GM stuff: starter, alternator, wiper motor, heater core, blower motor, radio, etc.

 

Why a repro? Can't you just get one at the auto parts store?
Or do you even need the whole unit, when a rebuild kit would probably take care of it?

- Eric

 

Buying their junk just encourages them to make more. So quit buying it and they won't have a market to sell it in.