Used Parts Guide - Ten Parts You Should Never Buy Used

Seats should never be bought used. If you want memorabilia, then feel free to purchase a used seat. But if you are going to be using a seat in racing conditions, take a moment to consider every accident it has experienced has weakened it. There is no good reason to try to save a little money on the one piece of equipment that protects the most important part of the car-the driver. Truthfully, this applies for every other type of safety equipment as well, including helmets, belts, window nets, head and neck restraint devices, and so on.

It's impossible to buy used fuel, but if you have the opportunity to purchase a 55-gallon barrel of fuel that's less than full, you should avoid the temptation.

"Some fuel problems are visible to the naked eye, but many aren't, and you don't want to be caught in an embarrassing situation with fuel that looked okay," says Mike Miller, technical manager for Sunoco Race Fuels. "If you don't know its history, and can't trust the person trying to sell it to you, then you're probably better off buying fresh stuff."

You do not want to fail a fuel inspection because of illegal additives. This will not only make you fail tech, but it will also have the tech officials wondering what else you're trying to sneak past them. Remember, your reputation for not being a cheater is on the line here also.

Scales take a lot of abuse from any racer, and when you buy them from another team or competitor, the salesman in them will poke through telling you that he has taken great care of them and only used the scales about a dozen times, which might be the truth. But what about each time the cords were run over with a jack while he was jacking the car up? The time spent on the scales is very valuable to how you are going to perform while you are at the track. A used set of scales will simply make you doubt whether the scales are providing the correct numbers.

Exception: You can determine whether or not used scales are reading true by using a heavy piece of lead that has an exact known weight. You should know the weight to the tenth just to be sure. Don't merely put it on one scale pad, though; check all four and make sure that they are all weighing the same. If you see a one- or two-pound difference in all of the scales, don't even think about buying them.

For drivers who utilize a quick-change rearend, never purchase a used set of rearend gears. A number of people have told me of purchasing a gear set of a particular ratio only to discover the set didn't match. Not only that, but those gears experience very extreme conditions. A polished set of gears can look brand new but could have over 50 races on them.

When you venture to auctions or used parts stores, there are occasionally some great deals. I have made some excellent buys at auctions. And in truth, I have bought some parts that were on this list just because of the "deal" that I was getting. I purchased a driveshaft earlier this year for the sole reason that no one was even bidding on it. I paid $10 and was feeling pretty good about myself. It has sat in my shop for eight months because it is too long and the yoke is too big for my transmission. Save the money you have and invest it into the parts that you can use to improve your finishing order at the track.