More Omix-Ada QC issues...

Well here we go again... I'm passing this on so that you guys can have a heads-up. I just rebuilt my front end after having a wheel bearing go south. Other than the usual bearings, seals, etc I bought an Omix-Ada spindle from Quadratec and some new drums from KW.

This is the spindle:

When I installed this on the axle shaft everything felt fine, but when I tightened it up to the knuckle I couldn't turn the axle. I made sure the bushing was pressed in all the way, wasn't mushroomed, no burrs or anything like that. After several installs/removals I noticed that the original bushing had a significant angle cut out of the edge to match a radius where the axle shaft was cast. The Omix bushing doesn't have enough of this cutout on the ID edge you can see in the pic. When it was tightened down, it bound on the axle shaft. After a spin on the lathe to cut out this relief, the spindle worked great. They simply are using the wrong bushing.

After all of this I installed my brakes and put on a brand new brake drum from Omix. I gave the wheel a spin and the drum was out-of-round. Just to make sure it wasn't my installation I tried it with the old drum that I just had turned and had no irregular rubbing.

I'm definitely starting to see a trend in the parts that they machine and it's pretty discouraging.

 

It's not looking good for Omix-Ada. After reading multiple reviews I will not be using any parts from them.

 

After having many successes and a few failures, here is the position I've come to:

Did they machine the part in-house and how important is it that it be perfectly machined?

When metal hardness, balance, roundness, etc need to be spot on I'll look for NOS or recondition originals. Their sheet metal parts, plastics, accessories, etc should all be fine and I will continue to buy them. They also have a lot of small parts (hardware) that are pieced together as kits... these are made elsewhere and are very convenient.

They really do us a huge favor by making all these old jeep parts... I really just wish the QC was there.

 

glad you figured it out . now how much different is crown parts . they look the same just a little pricier

 

"Their sheet metal parts, plastics, accessories, etc should all be fine"

I have to disagree, very slightly.

The carb air horn I got was almost unusable, very poorly shaped and fitted.
The rubber flex hose to the air cleaner literally fell apart in one season.

 

Actually that bushing may very well be right.
This is why, when we were putting together firefighter mikes cj6, we had 4 different front spindles, 2 were sharp, 2 had large chamfers. These came from 2 different Dana 25s, one had spicer joints, the other had Zeppa joints.
There simply using what they think works without details. The factory used parts as they needed and had assembly workers that knew what to use when and where. 50 years after the fact replacement companies only go by prints with no application knowledge.
Call them and let them know.

 

"the other had Zeppa joints."

That would be Rzeppa.

Alfred H. Rzeppa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I've always loved trying to pronounce it.

 

Really?

 

The poor quality of replacement parts for Jeeps is very discouraging. Can you imagine a company like Year One selling crap like that to muscle car restorers? Never happen.

 

I hope this was slightly sarcastic. Having resurrected many Chevelles over the last 20 years, I can write a book on bad reproduction parts. Yes, some are good but it's no more reliable than my limited experience with Jeeps, so far.

As with Chevelles, Camaros and Mustangs, I'm thankful that Jeep does enjoy a robust following and aftermarket parts supply. I recently ventured out to restoring an AMC Gremlin and there's relatively little available for it.

 

I'm sorry to hear that....I restored a 65 GTO a few years back and used Year One for quite a few items. Didn't have any issues that I recall. Maybe pricing pressure has caused them to lower their quality standards.

 

Yup - pronounced cheppa.

I also admit I'm very surprised that Omix doesn't follow social media, or if they do, don't seem to give a damn about how crappy their products are.
I approached them at SEMA more that once to offer them feedback on how they could improve their products.
The bottom line - THEY DON'T CARE. WHY? Two words - Al Azadi.

 

Personally, I would have opted for a used original. I must have a couple dozen of them in the bone pile. Not much demand for closed knuckle 25/27/44 axles and suspect you could find one for little cost at any real 4x4 shop that does Jeep work.

 

Yeah.

I'm a man of few words.

 

Its pronounced
"cheppa or urrzeppa" depending on wether a polish man or a german man pronounces it.
We have a german at work, its his in-laws last name and he pronounces it urr-zeppa.