I have a broken mounting bracket for my 83 CJ7 so today I'm looking around for one. The local parts stores don't carry them so I have two choices, Dealer or Salvage Yard. The dealer price on this item is 59.00. The salvage yard is 35.00. However, the salvage yard is way out in BFE so I need to consider time and gas. I was lucky enough to go to a couple of Jeep Club meetings and find we can get discount off parts at a certain dealer so that brings the price down closer to the salvage yard so this time I'm going with the Dealer.
What burns my butt is the fact that this light weight piece of metal can cost this much $$$. I would figure 15, maybe 20 max, new.
Same day I price out a Flywheel ring gear from the dealer. They want 73.00 for a Ring Gear, 145.00 for a new Flywheel. Local parts store sells the Ring Gear for 23. Before I knew I could turn the ring gear over I order the part so I was stuck with it. Live and learn.
Well, anyway, the point of the story is if you're going to keep your jeep, always keep an eye for duplicate parts for future possible needs.
I'm going to be spending some time in the future to learn welding. I know then I could build a better quality one or at least repair it in the future.
Bill