Counterfeit Carter M6866 mechanical fuel pumps being sold on Amazon. Buyer beware!

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HSDemon

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I just bought an M6866 mechanical fuel pump for my 340 Duster from Amazon. Super cheap price which immediately turned on the Spidey senses to the fact that this could be a counterfeit. As soon as I received it, I was right, it is a Chinese copy inside a Carter box. I paid less than $18 with free shipping to my house. This is not the first time that I have bought a counterfeit product on Amazon, in fact this is my 3rd time. I ended up buying another one from a known good supplier, Summit Racing. We all know Summit gets their parts directly from the manufacturers so there is no change that they have their isles stocked with counterfeits. Paid about $44 with shipping and taxes from Summit. The outer Carter box is IDENTICAL except for one part under the opening flaps where incredibly the counterfeit box says you need to get a new fuel filter or it will void the warranty, where the original Carter box does not have this, and the part number labels where the counterfeit says made in Mexico, and the real one says made in Korea. Here are the photos, you can easily tell the original Carter pump as it has the "curved" pump arm as the original Carter pumps did, where the Chinese one has the straight pump arm.
1st photo: Original Carter pump is on top with the OEM style bent pump arm.
2nd photo: Top with bent pump arm is the original Carter pump, you can also see the much better casting quality.
3rd photo: Original carter pump is your right, it says "in" on the inlet side and the inlet nipple is longer.
4th photo: Counterfeit pump came with 2 sets of instructions, a copy of what came in the Carter pump and then the identical instructions printed on a single double sided piece of paper. The instructions printed on a single piece of paper came in a "zip-lock" baggie with 2 black gaskets, also look at the part number on the baggie, it has an additional BD after the part number. Anyone who deals with Chinese product knows that this is how they like to package their instructions and gaskets. The green gaskets Carter uses came in the "real" pump along with the instructional pamphlet.
5th photo: This is the only difference I could find in the boxes, besides the part number decal. The Chinese counterfeit pump came with an additional instruction to change the fuel filter to validate the warranty.
6th photo: Counterfeit pump part number decal says make in Mexico, where the original Carter one says made in Korea.
7th photo: The part number on the real Carter pump is really easy to see with the black numbers on the bottom of it, the counterfeit China pump has what looks like a very light laser etching on the side of the pump, very hard to see.

If you move the pump arms the China pump make like a pig squealing type of noise as you move the pump arm. The Carter pump makes no such noises, it is actually very quiet as you actuate the pump arm, you can feel the air going in and out but there are no strange noises.

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I bought one of those from Amazon a few months ago. They list it as made in Korea. I'll have to look to see if I have the box. Its installed but I haven't run it yet.
 
The Carter on my Dart that I kept from way back in the day, also has a "narrowed" section for added clearance to the timing chain. I bought a new M6866 way back before the slants took over everything that use to be Made in the USA. Lots of "imposters" posing as "Genuine" nowadays. Buyer Beware for sure.
 
This may not be counterfeit. It may simply be that "Carter" is now relableing junk, just like so many other former U.S. companies
 
This may not be counterfeit. It may simply be that "Carter" is now relableing junk, just like so many other former U.S. companies
I thought about that, but Summit still has the same pump I have been buying for decades, the photos on the Carter website still match the pump I received from Summit, and the price just does not make any sense. If Carter is going to just repackage the China pumps, which I can definitely see happening, why would they sell them for less than what the currently sell their Korea pumps? I can definitely see them buying China junk and putting it in their boxes, but for someone to be able to sell that pump for $17 with free shipping would mean that Carter would have to lower the cost to 1/3 of what they currently charge. Summit sells this pump for $28 and you have to pay shipping, unless you are over the $100 mark. Having been all my life in the automotive aftermarket, my educated guess is that Summit pays about $20 for that pump, so that they end up making close to 30 points. I know for a fact that Summit was making about 25 points of profit back when I was really in the wholesale end of the business. So, for someone to sell that pump for $17 with free shipping on Amazon, they have to be paying way less than $10 for it. Shipping will be at a minimum $7, then you have the Amazon fees which are like 15%. So, for you to make just a couple of dollars you would need to pay $6-$7 for it, and I know Carter will not drop the price down there, it just makes no sense.
 
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Niether of those are like the old carters I'm use to. The old one's were rebuildable. lol
 
I just bought an M6866 mechanical fuel pump for my 340 Duster from Amazon. Super cheap price which immediately turned on the Spidey senses to the fact that this could be a counterfeit. As soon as I received it, I was right, it is a Chinese copy inside a Carter box. I paid less than $18 with free shipping to my house. This is not the first time that I have bought a counterfeit product on Amazon, in fact this is my 3rd time. I ended up buying another one from a known good supplier, Summit Racing. We all know Summit gets their parts directly from the manufacturers so there is no change that they have their isles stocked with counterfeits. Paid about $44 with shipping and taxes from Summit. The outer Carter box is IDENTICAL except for one part under the opening flaps where incredibly the counterfeit box says you need to get a new fuel filter or it will void the warranty, where the original Carter box does not have this, and the part number labels where the counterfeit says made in Mexico, and the real one says made in Korea. Here are the photos, you can easily tell the original Carter pump as it has the "curved" pump arm as the original Carter pumps did, where the Chinese one has the straight pump arm.
1st photo: Original Carter pump is on top with the OEM style bent pump arm.
2nd photo: Top with bent pump arm is the original Carter pump, you can also see the much better casting quality.
3rd photo: Original carter pump is your right, it says "in" on the inlet side and the inlet nipple is longer.
4th photo: Counterfeit pump came with 2 sets of instructions, a copy of what came in the Carter pump and then the identical instructions printed on a single double sided piece of paper. The instructions printed on a single piece of paper came in a "zip-lock" baggie with 2 black gaskets, also look at the part number on the baggie, it has an additional BD after the part number. Anyone who deals with Chinese product knows that this is how they like to package their instructions and gaskets. The green gaskets Carter uses came in the "real" pump along with the instructional pamphlet.
5th photo: This is the only difference I could find in the boxes, besides the part number decal. The Chinese counterfeit pump came with an additional instruction to change the fuel filter to validate the warranty.
6th photo: Counterfeit pump part number decal says make in Mexico, where the original Carter one says made in Korea.
7th photo: The part number on the real Carter pump is really easy to see with the black numbers on the bottom of it, the counterfeit China pump has what looks like a very light laser etching on the side of the pump, very hard to see.

If you move the pump arms the China pump make like a pig squealing type of noise as you move the pump arm. The Carter pump makes no such noises, it is actually very quiet as you actuate the pump arm, you can feel the air going in and out but there are no strange noises.

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I just bought an M6866 mechanical fuel pump for my 340 Duster from Amazon. Super cheap price which immediately turned on the Spidey senses to the fact that this could be a counterfeit. As soon as I received it, I was right, it is a Chinese copy inside a Carter box. I paid less than $18 with free shipping to my house. This is not the first time that I have bought a counterfeit product on Amazon, in fact this is my 3rd time. I ended up buying another one from a known good supplier, Summit Racing. We all know Summit gets their parts directly from the manufacturers so there is no change that they have their isles stocked with counterfeits. Paid about $44 with shipping and taxes from Summit. The outer Carter box is IDENTICAL except for one part under the opening flaps where incredibly the counterfeit box says you need to get a new fuel filter or it will void the warranty, where the original Carter box does not have this, and the part number labels where the counterfeit says made in Mexico, and the real one says made in Korea. Here are the photos, you can easily tell the original Carter pump as it has the "curved" pump arm as the original Carter pumps did, where the Chinese one has the straight pump arm.
1st photo: Original Carter pump is on top with the OEM style bent pump arm.
2nd photo: Top with bent pump arm is the original Carter pump, you can also see the much better casting quality.
3rd photo: Original carter pump is your right, it says "in" on the inlet side and the inlet nipple is longer.
4th photo: Counterfeit pump came with 2 sets of instructions, a copy of what came in the Carter pump and then the identical instructions printed on a single double sided piece of paper. The instructions printed on a single piece of paper came in a "zip-lock" baggie with 2 black gaskets, also look at the part number on the baggie, it has an additional BD after the part number. Anyone who deals with Chinese product knows that this is how they like to package their instructions and gaskets. The green gaskets Carter uses came in the "real" pump along with the instructional pamphlet.
5th photo: This is the only difference I could find in the boxes, besides the part number decal. The Chinese counterfeit pump came with an additional instruction to change the fuel filter to validate the warranty.
6th photo: Counterfeit pump part number decal says make in Mexico, where the original Carter one says made in Korea.
7th photo: The part number on the real Carter pump is really easy to see with the black numbers on the bottom of it, the counterfeit China pump has what looks like a very light laser etching on the side of the pump, very hard to see.

If you move the pump arms the China pump make like a pig squealing type of noise as you move the pump arm. The Carter pump makes no such noises, it is actually very quiet as you actuate the pump arm, you can feel the air going in and out but there are no strange noises.

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Not the only counterfeit thing from Amazon.
I bought some Ray Ban sunglasses from there.
I knew immediately that the lens optics were marginal at best.
 
Did you really think you were gonna get a bonafide Carter pump for under 18 bucks?
 
Niether of those are like the old carters I'm use to. The old one's were rebuildable. lol
They still make them. I have one on my car and a, spare.
I think someone was,saying a month ago was a,shortage of them though
They are the high performace one's and can be turned so you can clock them.
As far as the OP prices tell you if real or not on current production items.
If old stock being closed out diff story.
Most guy's know it too good to be true
Real Benchmade auto knife 180 bucks made in USA.
Fake Benchmade auto knife 20 bucks and 7 buck's shipping on WISH. Yea it is gonna be fake.
I can see anything after the time has run out on patent being fair game. But China just steals stuff ASAP and cares not. Really kills real USA companies who did all.the R&D.
But guy's will buy the junk and stab the USA in the back.
 
I just got an email from Amazon stating that my review of the pump did not meet their "guide lines" and will not be published. I guess that if you say that Amazon is selling counterfeit product, with photos and evidence of it, they will not let you post it...
 
I just got an email from Amazon stating that my review of the pump did not meet their "guide lines" and will not be published. I guess that if you say that Amazon is selling counterfeit product, with photos and evidence of it, they will not let you post it...
There is no evidence. Its just your observations. It may or may not be a counterfeit. For all any of us know they could make them in 2 different factories. Did you try and contact Carter and ask them?
 
There is no evidence. Its just your observations. It may or may not be a counterfeit. For all any of us know they could make them in 2 different factories. Did you try and contact Carter and ask them?
I did contact Carter but never heard anything back from them.
 
You might be right. It is made out of 'metel' though :rofl:
 
You usually get what you pay for…..
 
If you can get a confirmation that it's counterfeit from Carter, you can do a charge back on your credit card. I went through that process for a counterfeit part purchased on Amazon before. I was less than thrilled the way Amazon handled the situation.
 
I hope mine is real, I got it from Rock Auto for cheap. I'll check later, it's still in the box.
 
Most brands today are simply that - they stamp their brand on parts made by others. Especially true for brands from car manufacturers. Much discussed on a M-B forum since some people insist on paying $$$$ for M-B branded parts. Others find the source of those parts and buy the same part under another brand for sometimes 20% the price. On a Blue Moon, a Mopar branded part at the dealership may be the cheapest. In general manufacturer-branded parts are best, since they assure the quality even though they don't make them. Even Bendix has begun selling foreign parts under their name, but at least they use "Bendix Global" brand for those.

So, no proof that those two parts in post 1 are not both legitimate Carter brands. No expert, but the top one appears die-cast and the bottom one sand-cast. The top one appears better quality. What you can't tell is the quality of the rubber diaphragm inside. When that fails, gasoline can flood the crankcase to dilute the oil and perhaps damage the engine before you find the problem.
 
I bought one from somebody on Ebay for $34 so I thought it was genuine Carter and it came in a Carter box but it doesn't look as beefy as the old one. I thought maybe Carter was just trying to cut corners. I installed it on an old 318 pickup truck back in March and it's been doing alright so far.
 
Well here’s a real good picture of the original fuel pump I just took off of my 1972 340 Duster. I bought the car new off the dealership lot with zero miles. It had an Airtex pump which I believe is listed in the service manual (not parts book) along with the Carter. It apparently was dual sourced by mopar. It has a straight arm and it’s the original pump. I replaced it with a Carter branded pump with a straight arm. Remember, the actual arm whether straight or curved ended up in the same place on this model. I think the Carters had multiple angles, the Airtex did not but both fit. Old castings had to be thicker because of core shift and a lack of precision in the manufacturing process. New casting techniques are far more accurate so the body of the part may be just as sturdy but have less mass. Hard to tell unless you have knowledge of this particular part and manufacturer.

New one says Carter, was sourced from Korea. Most low volume parts are out sourced with the oems approval. Very low volume for LA engine fuel pumps I’m sure. New one fits and runs fine. Had two green gaskets. The hardline fitting from the pump to the carb was off just a touch but not enough to prevent installation. Just called Fred Ballard about rebuilding the original pump and he also said it’s news to him. I have seen mid 60’s Mopar’s with original Airtex pumps some screwed together some crimped. So another strange deal.

The service manual calls out two models (not part numbers) and I think one is Carter and one is Airtex. If you look, it’s not just small block, but other families.

I worked for GM my entire life and we frequently dual sourced critical parts so I’m pretty sure the other oems did too.

The Airtex must have been a pretty good one, it’s lasted over fifty years.
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