Need both balance shafts for Cat 3304. Do Costex (CTP) seem to be quality parts? Open to suggestions.
After market parts involve some risk. The source of these parts is open to question. Some are manufactured by major parts suppliers, some are production overruns from OEM orders, some are will-fit parts made to achieve a price low enough to attract to occasional users. That being said, after market parts supply a large segment of the parts market. If you rely on your machine for 8 hours a day, 5-6 days a week, then OEM parts make sense to your bottom line profit. If you use your machine sporadically, or on the farm, then the cheaper parts look better for your investment. Regards, Clark
In my limited experience CTP parts have been fine. Balance shafts sit and spin so it's not like a camshaft with all the loading and wear points. As sealark37 says if it's a front line production machine go CAT, if not why not save a few bucks?
I put a bunch of CGR gears in my 6 transmission and torque. Italian made. You had to pay attention to the details when assembling. Sometimes they needed a tweak. On the CAT stuff look at the parts the same way. I have noticed the quality control is going down.