I am going to tell a little story here that is embarrassing to me but I hope that it will have a small impact on someone who might be having problems with aftermarket parts.

I bought a brand new Holley carb and put it on my 355ci. It worked OK but I when I let off the gas it did not go back to idle. It would stay around 1000RPM until I blipped the gas and then it would go to 750RPM where I had initially set it. The smaller carb I just took off did not have this problem so I thought there must be something wrong with the new carb.

I could not figure it out and I took it off and started looking at the throttle blades. I backed off the idle set screw and held the carb up to the light and I could see light around the edges of the throttle blades. I thought they were bent or something like that. Well I really gave it to Holley I had one of the top guys at Holley on the telephone telling him that his quality control might be a little better if they hadn't bought so many other aftermarket parts companies a few years ago etc. etc.

He was a very nice guy and was apologetic and Holley replaced the carb with a new one. I bolted the new carb on the idle was the same. To make a long story short I eventually found the problem to be vacuum leak from the base carb gasket. I did not put on a new gasket when I replaced the carb. The old carb was a 4160 and it has a different base and it had indentedthe gasket in the outline of the base. The new carb was sucking a small amount of air through these indentations and causing it to idle high. I put on a new gasket and the carb idled perfect.

I phoned the guy back at Holley and apologized.

Many of aftermarket parts need to be modified a little and sometimes a lot order to work, so before we go and start a thread bashing an aftermarket supplier we should be stepping back and taking a look at the problem first. The we can ask questions like "Any one else have a problem like this ?" or "This part doesn't seem to fit anyone have any ideas how to get it to fit ?" After that we can contact the vender and see if they can help. Only then if you really believe you have a case because the vendor won't help or is ignoring your requests for help should you post a negative thread.

Negative threads are useful because they help us avoid shoddy merchandise and keep the vendors honest but just complaining because you can't get something to fit really does no one any good.

 

cool on the return call i do the same

 

I don't think I'd have the ***** to call em back

 

How'd the crow taste?

Glad you called em' back

 

Well said. However, if a product is in fact shoddy and/or the customer service from the supplier is poor I think we should hear it in a non-passionate detailed post , even if the supplier is a forum vendor. If a company is willing to stand behind it's products it should be willing to take some criticism if it's deserved or at a minimum give rebuttal explaining their side of the story. The only way some companies will change their ways or improve their service is through a loss of customer base which cannot occur unless that customer base is educated (which we try to do here on the forum) and knowledgeable about the available products. I'm not condoning bashing because that is negative and does no good. A positive post, outlining the problem and dialog with the company(such as this thread), provides much more information that buyers can use in their purchases.
My compliments to you for recognizing you were wrong and calling the Holley rep back to apologize. That's stand up in anybodys book.

 

Now you tell us I could have used this info a few months ago.
I did some major modifications to my 3310 (cutting choke housing off, adding secondary metering block, ect...) well once I bolted it on I couldn’t get it to run right. So I took it off after many hr of playing around, and drove the car to Straight line racing where Andy installed the carb with this plate solving all problems I had

 

well done Wayne, I am sure these guys take a lot of abuse from irrate customers, they would be thrilled to get that apology - again kudo's to you. Now you are close to sounding like an old married guy though - yes dear, you're right dear, will never happen again dear, how incredibly thoughtless of me dear for buying tires when I saw that 40 ct. diamond in the window just the other day...

 

Excellent example.