MOPAR branded distributor gears.

[Guynn <amx69@xxxxxxxxxx>]

It is becoming more and more obvious that MOPAR dealers often do not 
stock real MOPAR branded parts. They often substitute an aftermarket 
part , but in donig so the buyer that is not informed does not know they 
are byuing the wrong part. MOPAR just like AMC did, carries CROWN 
branded parts for Jeep. BUYER BEWARE.

While there is nothing ''wrong'' with the parts[as long as you use the 
SAME brand together] the Crown gears DO NOT match up with the real MOPAR 
pieces. Much has been asked about ''how do I tell one gear from 
another?/'' Explaination of ''look & color'' along with other 
charateristics has been passed around, but still AMCers are being stung 
by this. I spoke with TWO guys just yesterday, they both bought Mopar, 
but they both got one Mopar, one Crown gear. This caused the destruction 
of their gears.

I will tell in BOLD print the very easy way to determine if you are 
recieving a Crown, or Mopar piece.
ANY CAM OR DISTRIBUTOR GEAR YOU EVER BUY FROM MOPAR, IF IT COMES IN A 
BOX[that is the key, BOX] THEN IT IS A CROWN GEAR. REAL MOPAR GEARS COME 
IN A SEALED PLASTIC BAG WITH A BLUE MOPAR OVERPRINT ON THE BAG. If you 
order a set of gears, and ONE is bagged, and ONE is boxed, you are 
buying a mis matched set. PERIOD.  Do not go by Part numbers, as MOPAR 
puts their own lable on the Crown pieces.

Not only does this mis-matched set of gears ruin each other, and dump 
metal shavings in your engine, but MOPAR is RIPPING you off big time on 
Price. Crown gears are dirt cheap compared to real MOPAR pieces, but the 
dealership is Charging you real MOPAR price. You can buy a SET of TWO 
Crown gears for less than the costs of ONE Mopar distributor gears.

Also beware on other AMC parts from Mopar. Mopar dealers still sell 
front Timing covers. However they DO NOT have real MOPAR pieces at all 
anymore. They will sdell you a Crown cover buty instead of charging the 
Crown price, Yep, you got it, they charge the Mopar price. When Mopar 
was the only source for the timing cover the price grew steadily. By the 
time [about 3-4 years ago] that MOPAR was totally out of stock the 
timing covers from them were over $600.00 . Today the dealer will sell 
you a new front cover, CROWNS' but they will charge you well over DOUBLE 
what you can buy the SAME cover for from an Honest vendor.

My advice on dealing with MOPAR is to REFUSE to buy ANY Crown part for 
the MOPAR price. If the dealer is not willing to charge you correctly, 
refuse to buy the part there and go to a Crown dealer. If you are going 
to get a Crown piece anyway, why pay more than double for it??

MOPAR is still a great place, the only place in some cases that we can 
find AMC engine hard parts. But, that is no reason to get ripped off on 
pricing.

Before you beat up the ''guy behind the counter'', he did not do this to 
us, but someone else in the organization did. Someone at MOPAR decided 
to sell a inexpensive, TAIWAN made part for the Expensive USA made 
price. Not all dealers do this.

Good Luck, keep an eye out, it is YOUR money and YOUIR engine the WRONG 
parts are going to eat up.

Regards,

Randy Guynn