I tried to investigate this a bit as well, given the range of rebuild price points and the fact that one or more folks have elected to rebuild them themselves....I'm not that skilled. My orig had some play in the bearings at 76K, pulled and replaced as a precaution (I asked the p/o if the belt service was done and he promised it was...when I went through the receipts post-purchase I saw that only the belt was replaced...boo...)
In the end the price of the plastic impeller from Laso and the mitigation of risk of chewing up the block from a bearing/impeller issue won the day for me. Basically because I was impressed that the company was willing to receive input and reconfigure production to utilize the plastic impeller in response to community concerns. Seems like providing a good product is important, and shoddy rebuilds would loose market share...
