Torrington needle bearings are the best way to go...Got one in the Sporty trap door for the L/H countershaft bearing and a closed end Torrington on the R/H engine case for the countershaft with no issues...

 

The new SE are the same as the torriers, Also the new INA's for the 96er's are better than the older ones for the 88's..

When I got my new Andrew's cams in 09 the bearings they recommended and sell with the cams kits was the INA's

When I called them (Andews TecH line) they didn't say there where better, just that he said in their test they liked the INA's better now that they are bigger for the 96'ers and with the HYD tensioners there is a lot less pressure on them.

Bottom line is most ole school thought still lean to the torringtons...

Also I called the five dealers around here and all but one still use the INA's in the 96er's when doing cam jobs..

Its not the issue it used to be, at least so I've been told and I don't know of know anyone personally that's had any probs with the INA's.

Only 1 motor 88''er that I have seen at the dealer that had cam bearing probs and that one that the wrench said the way it was ridden and taken care of it prob would not have made a Diff..

For peace of mind just install the New SE bearings and U'll be fine

 

Thanks ill get the s/e ones

 

always go with the torington ,they are a full compliment bearing,twice as many needles as the junk harley bearings

 

I know that corporate America is about profit and bean counting, but I still have a question. What would be the cost difference in using a quality bearing. I'm thinking it could be as little as a dollar at the assembly line. I have no idea how many bearings per cycle we are talking of, but why can't quality be a primary goal of Harley. Someone give me an estimate of the additional cost to upgrade bearings on a bagger.

 

Maybe a total of $20 to put better bearings throughout the bike??? I don't know but that is a good point. The inner primary bearing failure over the last several years is a good example...

 

What years were the primary bearings bad?

 

After 06in Dyna and after 07 in Touring...Hear a lot of folks getting leakeag and bearing going bad....Oh! yeah mine was one of them at 42000 miles....

 

Thanks

 

Lets be clear, the only years that Harley had a problem with bearings failing was in the '99 & 2000 twin cam models, and that was the rear cam bearing. And Harley issued a recall/service bulletin to correct the problem.
The majority of the problems with the '01 to '05 models was cam chain tensioners wearing prematurely. The INA bearings, although not the quality of Torrington/Timkin bearings, are still installed in quite a few stock bikes still on the road today.
It's just an unwritten/accepted practice to swap out cam bearings when upgrading to an aftermarket or SE cams.