i was looking into buying an alky kit for my car, but with all these threads about pump failures it got me scared off in buying a used one. I guess what i want to hear from the guru's out there is that is it safe to buy a kit used??? I mean i know there's always a certain degree of risk when buying used parts, but would it be smarter to spend the extra couple hundred dollars to buy a new one and have peace of mind???

Most kits have a way to check the pump pressure so you should be fine as long as you check it weekly.

Just balance the cost of the kit used vs new and consider warranty, tech support, etc. Most manufacturers provide warranties and tech support new sales, but not for used kits.

Kits are pretty cheap, unless it's considerably cheaper, i would stick with brand new parts, like the above poster said.