Are Parts Stores Getting Worse?

[kwmech]

Adendum to post #3

As much as I loathe 700r4s I had to work on one yesterday. I got the pan off of it and found that the previous 'gear head' had stripped 6 bolts and made some type of attempt to heli-coil the holes--had no idea what he was doing-- My go to is to use Time-Serts. Cannot convert them to a Time-Sert without stepping up to the Big-Sert. Can't do the Big-Sert. Not enough material in the flange of the case. Anyways, I call, 'cuz yeah post 3. Hey do you have any 8x1.25 heli-coil kits with inserts. "I'll have to look that up in the book". DUDE!! turn around, they're hanging on the wall behind you. Oh, yeah.....I'm waiting...waiting... waiting..."well do you see them?". Yeah, we got them. I go down there, they are not Heli-coils, but some other brand out of Australia called coiled something or other. I sigh. Ok I'll try them, are they the same specs? Um, I think so. I take em home and screw one of them in and the friggn' install tab won't break off without stretching the last 1 or 2 threads of the coil further in the hole. Tried this 3 times before I gave up. Took it back, got my money back, told them to start stocking quality stuff like NAPA used to do. Called O'Reillys yep we got 'em. Drove to O'Reillys got the parts and installed them. Total time almost 4 hours, 3 trips between 2 stores including driving between the 2 towns and 35 miles to finally get the oil pan back on the transmission. And everybody in the industry is wondering why there are not enough mechanics to go around