Recently, I purchased a 99' Heritage with a build date of 3/99. By the way, I love this bike! The parts book needle bearing part number is listed as 9058. Based on the part number, is there any way to tell if it's a INA or Torrington bearing? I heard that the MOCO changed bearings sometime in 98' Is this true, or wishful thinking? TIA

 

The Torrington is a full complement bearing; INA is caged. A Harley parts book for '92 (first year for INA) or newer will only list the INA. The Torrington part number for the Evo inner cam bearing is B138

 

Sometime in late 92 they started with the INA bearing, so you're 99 has it. As mentioned above, the HD part number stayed the same, even though the part changed. With the Torrington, the inside looks like roller to roller. The INA has a cage with less roller.

 

To really know pull the cam and look at the bearing in the right case Torrington has it written on the outer bearing cage No cage roller to roller

 

And FWIW, it's quite easy to change. Harbor Freight has a blind bearing puller set for about $35 that works perfectly.

 

And...we all know that you should yank it out and install the Torrington if you even have half-a-reason and more especially...if you change cams to an aftermarket. I can attest to that after a $3000 plus engine rebuild due to parts of that little INA job floating all around in my EVO. I bought a dresser with less than 10K on it and the guy swore it was box-stock. I guess he forgot about that aftermarket cam he stuck in there in that INA bearing and I paid the price for his memory lapse. Doesn't matter if it's an EVO or a Twin Cam...get them out when you get the opportunity.

 

The easiest way to tell is if you have shrapnel in your oil!!!

If you do,it won't take long! Maybe a day or too.

The good news is I'm pretty happy with my "forced" up-grade to a new,bigger cam,shiny new oil pump(the shrapnel ate it up),adjustable pushrods,and new JIMS lifters..........$1250 in parts.......one day working on it.....all because of a .49cent bearing!

Having been down the road,I'd plan on replacing it just in case.

Half of the time spent was cleaning out the debree of the failed bearing.

 

Do these all go bad? Wonder why Harley did not go back to the Torrington if even a large percentage of them failed. I would have thought they would have a recall. Are they still using the INA in the Twin Cam? Is there something I am missing here?

 

I think INA was low bid a .02 cent savings !

 

The INA is used in the transmission also, with no problems in that application, so volume buying is a factor. Using the caged bearing speeds assembly at the factory. Quality, obviously, is not a concern.
The uncaring attitude about quality extends to the Twin Cam also. They use a larger INA on both ends of the crank, with predictable results on the power side, and they have stopped using bearings altogether on the pinion end of the camshafts! They've gone to a two-piece frame on the touring bikes in order to expedite assembly of the trike...... I'm just waiting for one of those to crack in half on the highway.