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ANCO® Celebrates 100th Anniversary with the Return of 'Big Yellow'
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By Counterman
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link hidden, please login to view announced the launch of its 65th-anniversary fundraising initiative. Running through July 1, 2024, the campaign aims to raise $65,000 through 1,000 donations of $65 each. This impactful effort highlights the industry’s commitment to taking care of its own, the AACF said. From sudden illness and death to natural disasters, the foundation has provided assistance to industry professionals and their families during their darkest hours. As AACF celebrates its 65th year of service, it remains steadfast in its mission to provide financial support and resources to those in the automotive aftermarket industry in need, the organization said.
In honor of this milestone, AACF is calling upon automotive aftermarket industry professionals, as well as compassionate individuals eager to lend a helping hand, to join forces in raising $65,000. By
link hidden, please login to view, supporters can contribute to a fund that offer vital assistance during a time of greatest need. “Over the past 65 years, AACF has remained unwavering in its commitment to supporting members of the automotive aftermarket community during their most challenging moments,” said Joel Ayres, AACF executive director. “As we embark on this historic fundraising initiative, we are inspired by the generosity and compassion of our supporters. Together, we can make a profound difference in the lives of those facing adversity, demonstrating the industry’s unwavering dedication to taking care of its own.”
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By Counterman
It’s been estimated that fraudulent warranty claims cost auto parts stores $600 million every year.
Those costs stem from a number of expenses that are set in motion by a return, including manually processing credits; reverse logistics and transportation; repackaging products; and additional quality-control testing to rule out major defects in materials.
The “Check the Part” campaign estimates that more than 50% of warranty returns are either brand-new or not the manufacturer’s product – which suggests that many parts professionals aren’t even looking at the item that’s being returned.
Endorsed by MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers and the Auto Care Association, the campaign encourages parts professionals to follow a simple three-step process when processing warranty returns:
Open the box. Inspect the part. Verify the return. Recently, Dorman Products published a return guide for CV-joint kits.
If a customer wants to return a CV-joint kit, Dorman offers these three tips to help to determine if it’s a valid warranty claim:
Open the box and make sure the correct part is in the box. Some customers may try to return unrelated products and heavy objects as a scam. Dorman parts will be laser-etched with the part number as shown. OEM parts or parts from other manufacturers are not valid returns. Some joints come lubricated from the factory. Others have grease supplied. Grease must be installed in all cases. No joint can last without lubricant! Verify grease was present – the unit should be pretty messy when returned. If you see rust, blue discoloration or distorted components, it’s likely the joint had too little grease and thus is ineligible to be returned. Please share examples of ineligible returns on link hidden, please login to view. You can download a PDF of the return guide below:
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By Counterman
It seems like everything old is new again. TV and movie producers love to “reboot” our favorite classics, musicians regularly cover or sample from songs we all know (and sometimes loved). Fashions from high school that make us cringe will be back in style sooner or later.
It can serve to bring us together by introducing younger generations to the things their parents knew and loved, or drive a wedge between us as we argue over which version is better. For the record, I’m the grumpy old guy who argues that the original is always better … but I don’t think I ever expected to see another Mazda with a rotary engine.
The Wankel rotary engine was a unique (if somewhat flawed) design that had last appeared in the 2012 Mazda RX8. Designed by German engineer Felix Wankel in the 1950s, various displacements of the two-rotor engine appeared in Mazda production vehicles beginning in 1967. In addition to the more familiar RX7 and RX8 sports cars, Mazda also produced roughly 15,000 rotary-powered B-series pickups from 1974-1977, and even put its tiny 1.3-liter rotary into a small bus in 1974. A prototype four-rotor engine powered Mazda to a win at LeMans in 1991.
The rotary design is unique in that it only has three moving parts. An eccentric shaft and a pair of three-sided rotors move inside a pair of roughly oval chambers, completing the traditional Otto-cycle of intake, compression, combustion and exhaust without the use of reciprocating pistons or a valvetrain. Instead, the twin rotors spin around the eccentric shaft like a hula-hoop. The secret to the Wankel design is the geometric shape of the rotor, known as a Reuleaux triangle. The fattened triangular shape of the rotor has a constant width, always sealing the chamber in three places throughout the cycle … in theory.
Sealing was an issue for the early Mazda rotary engines, with the apex seals at the three points of the triangle tending to fail. Like a piston ring in a reciprocating engine, the apex seal is responsible for maintaining compression throughout the cycle. This problem dogged the brand for years, but another inherent issue is in the housing design itself.
With the intake and compression strokes occurring at the top of the oval chamber, and the combustion and exhaust events at the bottom, the housing experiences uneven heat buildup. This leads to one of the more confusing cataloging elements of the rotary Mazdas: “leading” and “trailing” spark plugs.
Due to the heat differential between the upper and lower portions of the housing, the stock spark plugs are of different heat ranges. The leading plug (the “lower” position) is a hotter plug than the trailing (“top” position), although some enthusiasts prefer to run trailing plugs in all four positions. (Each rotor/chamber houses a pair of plugs.)
Inability to meet increasingly strict fuel-efficiency and emissions requirements ultimately killed the original rotary engine, but in 2023, Mazda resurrected the design. A single-rotor 830cc Wankel engine can now be found in the Euro-spec MX-30 e-Skyactiv R-EV plug-in hybrid. Unfortunately for RX enthusiasts, the engine serves only as a range extender for the PHEV variant of the MX-30, powering a generator rather than powering the drivetrain directly.
With improved compression, gasoline direct injection and an EGR system, this engine is much cleaner and efficient than previous rotaries. We’ll see if this improved technology can make its way back into the U.S. market, but for now, the European-engineered Wankel rotary engine has returned to its roots, thanks to the Mazda engineers who have believed in this funky little powerplant for nearly 60 years.
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By Counterman
It’s been estimated that fraudulent warranty claims cost auto parts stores $600 million every year.
Those costs stem from a number of expenses that are set in motion by a return, including manually processing credits; reverse logistics and transportation; repackaging products; and additional quality-control testing to rule out major defects in materials.
The “Check the Part” campaign estimates that more than 50% of warranty returns are either brand-new or not the manufacturer’s product – which suggests that many parts professionals aren’t even looking at the item that’s being returned.
Endorsed by MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers and the Auto Care Association, the campaign encourages parts professionals to follow a simple three-step process when processing warranty returns:
Open the box. Inspect the part. Verify the return. Recently, Dorman Products published a return guide for fluid reservoirs.
If a customer wants to return a fluid reservoir, Dorman recommends these four steps to determine if it’s a valid warranty claim:
Verify that it’s the right part type. Some customers return unrelated products and heavy objects as a scam to get money back. If it’s the correct part type, verify the part marking. Dorman reservoirs have the part number molded into the part, so you can be sure it’s the right part in the box. Verify that the cap is present in the box. Each Dorman reservoir comes with a cap, and if the cap is missing, the reservoir might not be covered under warranty policy. Verify whether the part has been used. A mounted or used reservoir will have marks from mounting fasteners, residue from being filled and/or yellowing from heat. If it doesn’t appear to be used, it may be new and unmounted, and therefore can be sold again. When the customer describes the reason for returning the part, write it on the side of the box. This can greatly help in identifying and fixing these issues. You can download a PDF of the return guide below:
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By Counterman
Photo caption: From left, Claudia and Dr. David Fry (standing) are pictured as Dr. Fry receives the Wings of Freedom Award in 2022 in Bay Harbor, Michigan.
Northwood University announced the passing of former President David E. Fry, “a visionary leader, esteemed educator and beloved patriarch in the Northwood University family.”
Fry, who served as Northwood’s CEO from 1982 to 2006, passed away Tuesday, Dec. 19.
“Dr. Fry fostered Northwood University’s growth and progress as the longest-serving president and left an indelible mark on the institution,” reflected Northwood President Kent MacDonald. “Today, Northwood continues to advance the mission personified by Dr. Fry to develop free-enterprise leaders across America and around the world.”
Fry began his distinguished career as an economics professor with research and teaching interests in business, global economics and free markets. As president, he focused on creating an environment where this passion could be passed on to generations of students through the University’s philosophy, which values individual freedom and responsibility, earned success, moral law and the importance of free enterprise.
Fry proudly exemplified these institutional tenets of “The Northwood Idea,” the university said.
“Dr. Fry’s legacy includes leading Northwood through significant change, including growing the University academically from an institute to a university and opening the DeVos Graduate School of Management in 1993,” stated Kristin Stehouwer, provost, and vice president, academic affairs. “The more than 23,000 students who proudly graduated from Northwood University while Dr. Fry was leading from the helm – alumni who have gone on to impact private industry – is a testament to his leadership.”
The Early Days
At age 22, David Fry was part of an extraordinary faculty class recruited to Northwood in 1965. He became an intellectual descendant of Dr. V. Orval Watts, Northwood’s first legendary faculty member who gave shape and form to The Northwood Idea. Beloved in the classroom, Fry was named “Outstanding Teacher of the Year” by students in 1967 and 1968.
Fry was so talented that the school’s founders – Arthur and Johann Turner and Gary and Willa Stauffer – promoted him to an administrator role in 1969. In 1971, the founders gave him a mission to plant seeds of enterprise in Indiana, where he flourished. As much as he enjoyed teaching, he had an inherent gift to lead, inspire optimism, and influence different constituencies to share a common dream.
Along the way, he had taken time to establish solid academic credentials. Just as the school’s fortunes started to sour in the mid-1970s, Fry had fortuitously taken a sabbatical to earn his doctorate in business administration.
In a historic move, the Northwood Board of Trustees appointed Fry president and CEO of the Northwood Institute in 1982, making him one of the youngest college presidents in the United States.
Nancy Barker, a Midland resident who has served multiple roles with Northwood since 1971, including vice president of university relations, reflected on how he started as a young professor and eventually became one of Northwood’s greatest leaders.
“David evolved over the years. He was respected and had a wonderful relationship with the professors because he had been a faculty member and fully understood their important role in the classroom and for the success of Northwood,” Barker said. “David was a dynamic and challenging leader. He expected and encouraged those around him to do their best and gave them the support and opportunity to do that. His officers were a team who worked pretty much 24/7, as did he. David took the original Turner-Stauffer vision to a whole new level; his impact was international and yet still very personal.”
“All our lives were devoted to Northwood, this small growing institution, and Dr. Fry was our leader who paved the way.”
As involved as Johann Turner and Willa Stauffer were in their respective husbands’ work, so was Fry’s wife, Claudia. She is known as half the team that transformed Northwood from the early 1980s until Fry retired as its president in 2006.
“Claudia was always there for David,” reminisced Dr. Timothy Nash, Northwood vice president emeritus and director of the McNair Center for Free Enterprise. “She was the Rock of Gibraltar, the anchor in his life who played the more direct role in raising their two wonderful children, Daniel and Julie. Claudia has always had a strong intellect, passion, and interest in The Northwood Idea, global economics and business.”
“David has had a much better and more fulfilled life with Claudia by his side, and Northwood has a larger global footprint because of the two,” Nash added.
Expanding Academic Offerings
Under Fry’s leadership, Northwood experienced major academic expansions, including seeing Arthur Turner’s dream of a Florida campus come to fruition in West Palm Beach in 1983. He also fostered professional development partnerships with businesses and industry, the military, and community colleges.
Northwood began recruiting underserved students who needed access to various delivery methods and options to complete their degrees. Now known as Northwood Online, this was the start of Northwood’s Adult Degree Program, a delivery of content that enhanced access to higher education for adult learners who couldn’t attend college due to time constraints.
The DeVos Graduate School of Management was born in 1993 under Fry’s leadership. Since its beginning, the graduate school has attracted students worldwide. More importantly, its graduates have become entrepreneurs, leaders in the industry, mentors, and role models.
A University Well-Led, A Life Well-Lived
After facing many transitional and financial challenges, Fry and his team elevated Northwood to new heights. Campuses expanded, programs improved and grew and university status was achieved. Once back on solid footing, leaders focused on creative opportunities and innovations that lay ahead, distinguishing the Fry legacy.
“David’s great contribution was leadership,” stated Dr. Robert Serum, a long-time academic leader and innovator of international programs at Northwood, who is credited with navigating significant educational innovations for over two decades, starting in the late 1980s. “There are a lot of good managers out there, but there aren’t a lot of good leaders. David could walk into a room full of CEOs, all of whom had big egos, and before you knew it, they all wanted him as a friend. He was very popular wherever he went with faculty and staff, with other administrators and teachers, and especially with businesspeople. He epitomized what they believed in, free enterprise and every dimension of The Northwood Idea.”
Those who worked with Fry noted he had a brilliant mind and was a spell-binding speaker.
“His eloquence was so outstanding,” stated Dr. Marjorie Hohman, former board of trustee member, Distinguished Women honoree, and honorary doctoral degree recipient. “He was a people person, first. He was very good at connecting with people and holding their attention because he was such an eloquent speaker. He could stand in front of a crowd and captivate them because his command of the English language was superb.”
Hohman admired Dr. Fry’s influence on those he worked with. “The most outstanding thing about him was his leadership abilities and how he was able to get the best out of people,” she said. “He was such a mentor to so many.”
In honor of the tremendous progress made under Fry’s watch, the Northwood community came together to fund the David E. Fry Endowed Professorship to celebrate his retirement.
Recognizing his outstanding contributions to Northwood, in 2009, the University vested upon Fry its highest honor, Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa.
Most recently, in 2022, Fry received the Wings of Freedom Award, created in honor of Northwood University’s own Dr. Dale Haywood. Northwood bestows this honor upon individuals whose lives have contributed to human progress, individual liberty, and economic and social prosperity.
“Dr. Fry’s legacy lives on at Northwood University, and we are forever thankful for his transformative role in our history,” stated President MacDonald. He continued, “Over my career, I have had the opportunity to research academic leaders around the globe and it is clear to me that Dr. Fry was one of the most transformational leaders in American higher education.”
Donors who would like to support Fry’s legacy can do so through a donation to the David E. Fry Endowed Professorship.
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