It is pretty sad. All you have to do is cruise these forums and look at the triglide issues, from 300-degree oil, to leaking trunks, to going into reverse all on it's on...etc. New model blues may get the blame for much of it, but trike kits that don't leak and mechanical reverse systems have been out there for years and they had to reinvent something. I saw a thread the other day from a TG owner that had carried his in due a loose front end. The nut on top of the trees had worked loose and he was told that Harley had a problem with them and had advised the shops to fix them with a thread locker. It is hard to believe they omitted the locking plate that holds that nut in place, but they did. The top tree does not even have the hole used on the dressers to lock the plate in place. It's all getting real unbelievable but we just keep buying them. Quality is simply going to hell in a hand basket!

 

Here's a pic

My (weak) understanding is that Torringrton and INA are mfg's and not really styles. It's just that what they selll into the HD market have made us think of them as styles. Not sure if that's important to us or not.

 

Just had my INA fail at 51,000 miles. Ruined the cam, but was so fortunate that it did not come apart and go through the engine. (I have all the parts of the bearing. It fell apart on the puller as it was set on the bench. New Torrington, cam and lifters. Will be riding again on Monday. The warning was a gradual increase in 'whine' from the cam case. Got it apart JUST in time.

 

As you can tell from your pic, they are two separate kinds of bearings. The full complement needle bearing made by Torrington has the needles right next to each other, where the INA are separated from each other, meaning the Torrington has more needles, meaning it's way stronger.

 

Holy crap! You guys are scaring the hell out of me here! I'm not taking my bike out again until I have gotten rid of that INA cam bearing! Gives me a logical excuse to get a new EV-27 cam, along with new lifters and pushrods, a little early! I have 45K miles on the bike now and don't want to chance the bearing going out and taking my engine with it. I haven't heard any whine down there yet though, so that's good...

 

Lifters and cam bearings should always be changed with a cam swap. Cheap insurance.

 

I recently picked up a 91 Heratage, only has 41,000kms on her. So I should have the Torrington bearing I hope, can anyone confirm this.
The motor is stoke.

Cheers
Dave.

 

Probably can't make any guarantee. Like has been mentioned in here already....only way to know for sure is to put eyes on it. As long as you know you have the stock cam in there, which you DON'T because you "picked-it-up", the bearing will likely be fine. Most of the time what makes them go south is a cam change and a previous owner will not always tell you the truth and they may not even know themselves.

I recently pulled one down that had 75K on the odometer and the stock INA looked just fine.....YES....I yanked it out anyway. No reason not to once you go that deep. You can take your chances and listen for new noises....generally a whine in the nose-cone. If an EVO would just come to a dead-stop when the inner fails, that would prevent a lot of damage. They usually run-on for a while and that's how the shards get scattered around the motor. I had one run until the cam got so hot that it melted the ignition pick-up sensor out on the cam nose, which is why it shut-down.

I feel your pain buddy, but if it were mine, I'd have to pull it to be able to sleep at night. You cannot always be certain of what HD did or did not do...or when.

 

That's not a "weak" understanding, it is spot on. Everyone wants to say INA VS Torrington when it is actually full complement VS caged. Both are good brands as well as many others, just as long as it's the right style for the application.

 

i got 68k miles out of my INA bearing before it came apart at idle found all the parts in the cam chest oil pump gear cam & a few other small parts in there