If a dealer or any other shop recommended not swapping the bearings, I'd be looking somewhere else for the work to be done.

 

Some info that I've learned in the last yr on bearings

I went through this last yr when I replaced the cams in my 07, 96'' motor with Andrews 26h's. New INA's for the 96'' motor vs the newer 168B's.

3 out of 4 HD dealers within 60 miles stated they do not use the torringtons's (168's) on the new 96'' motor while doing cams jobs, but do use new INA's bearings.
The One that did state they would, said it was up to the owner to ask for torrington's.. All four stated they haven't had one problem on any new 96'' motor that did just bolt in-cams, and used the INA bearings.

All 4 did say that the bearings must be replaced with installation of new cams.

Not being satisfied on those answers I ended up calling Andrews and talking with a tech..

After explaining the issue of what bearings should I use the tech told me that the installation kit that Andrews sales with the 26h's is the same INA bearing that harley is now using in the 96'' engine.

According to tech and the test that Andrews has done on the bearings they claim that the INA came out on top.
He said there wasn't a lot of difference, just they found in their testing that the INA's would be better overall for the 96'' with their cams..

The tech explained Part of the past issues with cam failure in older motors had been just as much as the cam itself with the pressure on the cams and the bearing journals being soft, developing flat spots on the cams themselves and that adding to the bearings failures.
He stated some cams still are softer than the Andrews, and could be an issue (supprise)

But, with the new 96'' motor having less pressure on the cams with the new Hyd tensioners Andrews has not had one report of bearing failure on a 96'' motor as of last yr using the INA's.

So not reading of anyone in here having any bearing problems that still has basically a stock motor I ok'ed the install for the bearings that Andrews recommended.

I learned last summer after I had mine done that a friend of mine had his done at one of the dealers 5 yrs ago that used the INA's in his 01 RK (Which again, puts more pressure on the bearings than the 96'' does) had 211's put in his RK and now has 54k miles on his bike and still running great..

I'm not trying to change anyones mind on whether to use the torringtons or not, nor that the INA's are better or worse.
JUST passing along info what I was told and learned about them....

Just that on the earlier motors the bearings used were more important to change out and use torringtons than they seem to be now on the 96''...

 

Interesting, kinda puts a different spin on most, if not all of what I've heard about bearings.

 

The bearings used on the 96 are bigger than the ones used in the 88. A b168 has a 1" inner diameter and the b148 is 7/8" that extra 1/8th of an inch makes the difference. A caged bearing has advantages over a full compliment bearing. It can take more BS, but the full compliment bearing like a torrington puts a lower load on the cam bearing surface. And with the shitting metallurgy of stock Harley 88 cams this killed many INA bearings early in its life....