Buying a used Bert

[fastford]

you can rent or borrow a bushing puller from your local advance or auto zone tell them your swapping a bushing in a turbo 400 chevy, its simple to use

[merc123]

Thanks. Looks like I'll just drill and pin it. It would seem Bert would take a hint from Brinn's design. Maybe they did in the new ones.

They are very difficult to talk to on the phone. They speak French...took me a few transfers to get someone that speaks English. They did say there is no oversize bushing, maybe get one from a machine shop.

Set screws here I come.

[merc123]

Anyone get their hands on a racegator yet? It appears to be a copy and parts are available already for it.

I can sell the racegator brand new shipped for $1200.

Read some good. Read some bad. The words that came to mind: "Cheap Chinese Junk" was the consensus. Get what you pay for.

[merc123]

READ? Ive read that too, not from anyone who has touched one, just the experts on this forum speculating when they first came out on the market.

Got my money in the Bert already. If you'd be willing to sponsor one I'd be more than willing to test one out. The only guy I have found so far running them in a modified has won races with it. From the outside, it would appear he probably didn't have to pay for it and it was sponsored by one of the stickers on his car. Give it to me free then I'll run it. Comes out of my pocket, I'll play it safe and go with proven gear. A friend of mine has a Bert he bought used. He has ran it for 5 years and hasn't had to rebuild yet. What about Racegators?

[merc123]

I agree about mark up. I can buy an AFCO ball joint for $54 or a Moog for $30. Funny thing is the AFCO is stamped with Moog part numbers.

It's all about "racing" components. I saved more money when I realized that if I can find the regular equivalent to a "racing part" company like AFCO or Allstar, then I will.

Anyone compare the internals of a racegator to a Bert/Brinn? Is the clutch material the same or better? Is it welded differently? Are the gears heat treated or coated differently? Mark up is one thing, but inferior parts is another. Is it truely markup on Bert/Brinn's part or is it they truely have better parts.

I'll give you an example. There's a guy that builds bullet proof transmissions for Powerstrokes. $4500 is the cost of one. IF you kill it and it's not neglect (overheat, no fluid) bring it back and he will fix it for free. I get one rebuilt for $2500. Do I spend the extra $2k for bulletproof or risk the bad OEM design? The $4500 is more appealing for a transmission that will outlast the truck as opposed to having to spend another $2000 to get it rebuilt again in 150k miles. Does he use better parts? Yes. Does he change things within the transmission to make it a higher cost? Yes. It's not mark up in this case, it's a truely different transmission.