Inliners International Forums General Discussion Drive Train Adapting a 1955 open drivetrain

The current crew behind parts counters in most "auto parts stores" is largely inept, but it's mostly not their fault. They are burger flippers. The only training they get is how to look up numbers that someone else entered in a computer bank using the information given them by the customer. The data is only accessible to them by going through a check list of on screen questions. Hardly any of them are taught to use any cross reference features if they are even available. Most stores no longer have catalogs that are up to date with what parts are available and if they are the vehicles we work on have long sense passed on from the pages. Almost all of these people were born long after new cars used points or carburetors. They are not into antique cars if they are car people at all. My younger son is the commercial parts man at an O'Reilly store in Reno and he can find what is out there. His brother and I use him all the time. He is not really a car guy but he knows parts at least from the commercial end. You also can not blame the speciality houses like Jim Carter & The Filling Station for making a profit. If there was a big market for what they sell it would still be in the big stores. These are now premium parts.

The days of walking is and asking for a gasket set for a small block Chevy are long gone. The parts are still available. Accessing them is a different game. The old part number is your best hope. When I worked at CarQuest I saved a lotto old catalogs and I can still get current numbers using the old ones most of the time. By the way about 90% of all cam bearings sold in this country, no matter the brand on the box, are made by Dura Bond in Carson City, Nevada.