Where do you Buy Parts

[Hoyt1500]

I'm rebuilding a 2004 Suzuki LT80 and am wondering where everyone is buying parts for their carbs, clutch, and transmission. Has anyone had success with Amazon parts or should I stick to OEM parts that can be found on partzilla or suzukipartshouse.com. I found one old thread where people talked about only buying OEM for top end but other locations should work. 

 

[Jim Denton]

Personally I research and read reviews. Plus it depends on what you want the end product to be. A full restoration is different from a functional usable machine. General fasteners- hardware store. Carburetor, rebuild what I have or search ebay for an oem that hits my price point. Facebook market place can be good for bodywork. Or maybe a complete parts machine. Tires for the machine I'm building now are going to be from Kenda, there are some on Amazon that look really good at almost half the price. But reading reviews outside of Amazon I'm thinking they may not be a.good investment. I've a tight budget for the equipment on the farm here and am always looking to save money. I try to keep the mechanics of things in the best shape I can but don't worry what they look like. 

[Gwbarm]

I think for the 3 you listed, OEM would be best, if its an OEM carb, if its aftermarket you could probably buy a new aftermarket carb as cheap as an OEM kit, but if its OEM carb, I would stick with OEM kit. The clutch I have heard the aftermarket clutch kits don't work very well, maybe Ebay, I don't deal with eBay much except for umobtanium parts, transmission parts can get expensive OEM, you might find a good used one at Ebay, I have done that, don't know what all you need.  I Use Motorsport.com, and rockymountainatvmc.com for OEM parts. I actually have an aftermarket carb on my suzuki only because it had already been replaced with aftermarket and the OEM one was 450.00. Which brings me to my next point, as Jim said, if you are on a tight budget aftermarket parts will probably be fine, but look at them closely and read everything to make sure they fit your machine, I have done that and still some don't fit and some don't work. 

[Hoyt1500]

Thanks Jim and Gwbarm. Your input backed up my worries about buying aftermarket clutches from amazon or ebay. I typically look at reviewers comments about a product if they're available before buying. It does seem that some of the aftermarket parts on Amazon have free returns, which can be a good thing if the part does not match up. I think I'll stick with OEM for the clutch and transmission if possible. Thanks!