where to get american made starter solenoids?

anyone know where i could find a halfway decent AMERICAN-MADE ford-style firewall mounted starter solenoid? i've had it up to here with malfunctioning chinese crap (yes even NAPA echlin stuff is now chinese or taiwanese--caveat emptor) but none of the stores stock american stuff and none of the places online seem to list the country of manufacture. at this point, i'm willing to pay a little more for a part that doesn't fucking stick on first crank.

thanks, and pardon the salty language. i'm getting very fed up with this major minor annoyance.

 

Carquest also carries a "premium" line of ignition stuff, might check to see if they are US made. Carquest ignition is made by Standard. The premium solenoid is blue and the regular is black.

Double check the Motorcraft stuff as the latest stuff ive see is made in Mexico. Cesar

 

when i was working in the parts store 'bout three years ago, a customer told me he refused to put imported parts on his car. last time i saw him he was walking.and i have seen parts that the BOX was made in the U.S.A.... the part inside the box however....

 

I buy the real deal if it's a car I give a shit about. I've bought alot of n.o.s. electrical parts off Ebay (still sealed) - sometimes cheaper than the foreign stuff.

 

China?

 

had the same thing happen on a boat. Ford style solenoid. Ended up with a junk yard solenoid, no problem since. Went through 7 solenoids, oh and the borg warner ones from Oreilly were made in china as well... at least the ones I had.

 

Ford dealer.

Or a junkyard.

Dammit.

 

American made parts is a great idea, but if nobody in America makes them anymore...

I've seen the same thing where it says "package Made in USA "

You can alway try to find a USA manufacturer then see who sells their stuff, but most are out of business now or doing rebuilt parts now. Like those Checker throw away rebuilt starters. Assembled in Illinois from genuine Chinese parts.

The last time I bought rebuilt 2GCs and 2Gs to make a 3 deuces setup and a 4 deuces setup for my brother, I got them from a guy who said we rebuild them right here to the origional specs of your make and model car. What I got was a bunch of mismatched carbs with allen head screws. I had to block them off for end carbs, replace some of the bases, replace the linkage with longer pieces for the multi-carb setups, get rid of those chokes all the carbs had and replace those stupid looking allen head screws they came with. 3 of the 6 carbs, the linkage was bound up and wouldn't even return if you did get it open. The only asshole I trust nowadays is ME! And maybe a few of our HAMBer dealers.

 

Ha HA ha ha ha! You are joking,right? The only thing we make in America anymore is worthless paper money. Good luck finding anything else.

 

For what it's worth, I bought a push button from NAPA about a year ago because something was screwed up in the 89 Nissan starting circuit and I didn't feel like chasing it down in the wierd assed wiring. Now I turn the key on and reach under the dash & hit the push button to start the car. Been working fine for a year now. No idea where it's made, but it looks and works like a good solid part. Looks just like the ones we used on race cars back in the 60's.

 

haha!

 

alright, ford dealer it is, i guess. bet some of you fellas are pretty sick of hearing about my ignition woes, eh?

 

i got some brake hoses and 2 wheel cyl that where bendex they cane from china,the guy said that they don't make ther parts here .
i think,china must be a bad place to live lots of factorys. no wonder people are out of work,

 

yeah, china has very little regulation, resulting in crappy products, sometimes dangerous products (remember the lead paint on toys last year?) it's unfortunate that american companies can't spend a couple extra bucks to keep jobs over here, and quality up. what worse is that they all know that the chinese stuff is horrible, demonstrated by the fact that they go out of their way to conceal that their stuff is made there, even pull tricks like using packaging manufactured in america so they can put usa on the box even if the part inside is chinese, like somebody pointed out.

anyway, ford dealer parts lists don't go back further than '68, so i had to dig a whole bunch for old motorcraft numbers, but i found them. solenoid sw3 and ignition switch sw583 if anybody cares. let's hope motorcraft stuff ain't mexican like 54fierro said. although i wouldn't be surprised if it was. thanks for the help boys.

 

if your having a hard time with them sticking check to voltage. low voltage is one of the reasons the pos's stick on. my boss use's that carp at the shop when i have to put 3 on befor they work and he doen't understand why i'm mad. huh. its hard to find starter, alt and relays made here. most are cheap crap.

 

my local O'Reily has a Motorcraft SW3 solenoid in stock , i will check the box Monday to see where it is made

 

Check out O'Reillys for anything made by BWD. All their stuff is made in USA and EXTREMELY good quality.

-Abone.

 

I've noticed that, but don't write them off. The quality of Asian made parts can vary widely from crap to as good as "American made" parts. Depends on the price point the vendor wants to go for. My recent experience with the NAPA/Echlin stuff has been good. NAPA is apparently specifying parts which meet their quality standard rather than just sourcing the cheapest crap available.

Bob

 

I used to have good luck with Niehoff solenoids but I don't know if Borg-Warner sells them anymore. They were burgundy but in the application guide below, they are shown as grey which is the same color as the Borg-Warner selct product and I could not find where they were made.
www.niehoff.com
http://ecatalog.smpcorp.com/NIE/

 

Yep. I remember that all too well....I also remember this.

I really would prefer not to buy ANYTHING from such a hellish place. Sad thing is, you can't even go GROCERY shopping without having to check the country of origin anymore. If they will make pouty lips out of dead prisoners, it sure makes me wonder what the heck they grow my mushrooms on...

...BAN CHINA.

easier said than done

 

Quite a few of the pieces I got from Mac's for the '56 Ford are American made but some are also from offshore suppliers not just China (India, Mexico).
Last I checked, most Motorcraft (Ford) parts are USA made; again buyer beware.
Sadly we're victims of our country's own success. Few wanted to work for low wages & unions made sure everyone got their "fair share" so many manufacturers went offshore to be competitive (quality didn't seem to matter), & to meet customers' quest for "cheap prices".
Yeah NAPA usually has pretty good stuff. I'd avoid the "made in China" boxstore bubblepack stuff..maybe a good price but ya get what ya pay for, and it's an almost certainty it came from an Asian sweatshop.

 

I got mine off of these guys, and from what I understand they make there own!!
http://stores.oksap.com/-strse-35/STARTER-DRIVE-CORVETTE-CHEVY/Detail.bok

 

Back in the mid 70's I could not keep a solenoid on my '32 so I had a friend / Echlin rep send it back to Echlin for a post mortem. Their report said it had corrosion from something resembling "car wash soap". I put silicone over the metal plate that is riveted to the plastic solenoid body and never replaced the solenoid again on that hoodless car that had the engine cleaned quiet often at the quarter car wash.

 

try a tractor supply store, some of their stuff is still good from my limited experience. they stock some of the old out of stock stuff and have tons of it on inventory. just bought a dist cap for a 8n tractor, made in usa, nice piece.

 

During the Beijing Olympics they were saying some Chinese factory owners were closing thier factorys & opening ones in Vietnam, where the labor is cheaper!

 

I think I have one going bad again and its the second one,sometimes it will only click but wont act up long enough so I can determine if its the solenoid or starter but nothing to worry about since it has a manual trans and I can just give it a push if it goes out.

 

try one of the truck stops...i'm the master mechanic at a local TA truck stop...all of ours are USA made...generally the only time they need to be replaced is when the main starter goes out and the drivers start "welding" the firewall unit with a screw driver....seems they don't like to be "shorted" to a dead ground

 

I find them at swap meets in there old American made boxes. never had trouble with any of those.

 

good stuff. it's just very annoying that most manufacturers won't tell you where their product is made. makes me think they're hiding that information for a reason. found a motorcraft for cheap, think i'll try that.