how to order bootleg parts by lowest price.
yes, the manual will tell you the specs of any part. its your decision when to go out of manual to do your repair.
It is always possible to get electrical parts with higher specs and cheaper prices by going out of manual. electrical parts are easy. say the manual says the headlight is a h4 30w 600 lumen halogen bulb. a 5w h4 800lumen led headlight bulb is brighter costs $1.40 shipping incuded. but now you can run a tiny gel battery or the holy grail of electrical repairs, the battery eliminator.
carb swaps without jetting. I have a 360 honda twin. two cylinder. thats a few less cc's than the free carb that comes with the el chepo lifan crate 200cc motor. 160cc vs 200cc. hell yes is this close enough that I can run this carb without changing any jetting. pulls throughout the range with no flat spots. this actually is a quality part. it has a new tech needle valve. I can leave the gas on all night and not be flooded the next day! 30$ for 2 with modern wire mesh pods. under the removable made in china sticker the casting says made in japan!
petcock, order by engine size. my gas tank is honda 16mm bung. I ordered the bootleg 16mm honda 500cc petcock. 6$ shipping included. works fine but had a problem. there are 2 types. one is rebuildable the other is rivited. rivited is crap. the rebuildable petcock is a qualaty part. its easy to see in the sellers pics. the reserve tube is brass not plastic and has a plastic screen that fits over the brass tube. and the plate that holds the lever has screws not rivits.
pipes, 2t pipes are tuned to engine size. 4t are not, you can throw out the mufflers. db killers in the manifold pipe only requires 2 tiny holes in the pipes to secure the screws. this does not ruin anything. you could easily put mufflers back if you want. you won't, and will be happy to rock cafe style.
antiques and lemons. my 360 has a design flaw. its a lemon. the camchain slipper, guide and tensioner are defective with an antique design. after replacing the stock parts 3 times in 2k miles I went out of manual. knowing todays reparirs is a valuable skill. there are 2 out of manual repairs. I saw a pro repair. the pro took another top end, one with a tensioner and swapped it out. I did not have another top end so I ordered a modern kz440 slipper. had enough of the broken slipper to make the quide. bracket to fit the kz was easy. used 1 inch cold rolled band irin from home depot.tensioner is home made busa style made from a bolt and a threaded piece of cold rolled band cut to size. best 20$ I ever spent on ebay. quality time with an angle grinder and hand drill.
bought a '74 kx125 2t. tranny stuck in gear. no replacement part is avalible. obsolete and no longer sold. the guy started the repair, found the broken spring and gave up. looked at the pics on ebay and ordered a shift shaft spring that looked close. again a few minutes with the grinder. used the old spring as the bushing. 3k miles later sold it for 3 times what I paid for it because I streeted it.
moral of the story. think, go out of manual. read enough repairs to know how its done today. use common sense. how did I street the kx. I know from the british sites they use a 38t rear sprocket on small 2t's. to get a brit motorcycle license you need to ride a 125 first. ok, no problem except its not available. got a rear sprocket from a pit bike. drilled 4 holes to fit the antique rear wheel bolt pattern. could not dill it. was way to hard. put it on my stove then heated till cherry. let it cool slowly. waied 2 hours than drilled the holes.
did I do something wrong? you know the old mechanics saying never tamper with temper. did I fuck thing up? this is where common sense plays a part. they make aluminum rear sprockets. thats way softer than un heat treated steel. anyway 3k later no wear.