Hopefully they're not outsourcing to China now like so many other auto parts. That Chinese steel just isn't the same quality. My crappy made in China brake rotors on my daily driver wear out and warp rather quickly. I'm going through two sets of rotors to one set of pads. That's just sub par steel if you ask me.
Blame China all you want, I guarantee there's an American putting the price difference in the sub-par steel in their own pocket. The problem isn't China making the part, it's the customer demand for such low dollar items that producers have an incentive to go to China in the first place. When 99/100 customers buy the lower-dollar item, despite the fact they know it's poorer quality, and the higher-quality items buy up precious shelf space and cost more, it's easy to see why retailers simply drop the better items. But then the person who finally gets fed up with inferior quality has no choice left in the matter. We have no one to blame but ourselves.
Yeah but those were Chinese... ;)
No they weren't.
Anyone in the northwest have any leads where I can send some keepers for a "second" opinion?
You can search around for machining service providers, and I'd bet dollars to doughnuts someone has a Rockwell tester. Keep in mind though that hardness testing typically requires a flat surface. Otherwise the deflection of the part can cause a bad reading.
Also, if you don't know the type of steel and hardening method, you can get bad readings. If it's a case hardened material, you'll get a lower reading than the 'actual' hardness, but micro hardness tests are tougher to do quickly. Best way would be to cut a keeper in half, top-to-bottom, and then test the 'core'. Then flip it onto the OD and test on the ID surface and compare results. You'll need 2-3 tests in each orientation, but the parts are small enough that it's going to be tough to get even 1.
If they're case hardened by design, it will be tough to make any decisions based on hardness. It would take microscopy to tell if the case depth is where it should be and if the material composition is correct and heat treated properly. Also not the easiest thing to do.
None of this testing is terribly expensive, but all told would be several hundred dollars to do through a competent lab. That can be cheap if it means getting any significant compensation for the destroyed motor from any of the component manufacturers.