IMS Bearing -- Be careful when specifying a replacement

[Oldcarguy]

Originally Posted by Cbonilla

I'm not disputing that LN was very clear in their instructions to the installer regarding the IMS bearings. But I still disagree with LN holding themselves out as the brand name to ask for while not making it clear to the ultimate consumer that simply asking for an LN bearing was not necessarily going to get them the advertised product.

Hi Carlos, I understand your frustration. Out of curiosity I just checked the LN website and current product PDF. While the LN product page and PDF no longer have a picture of the classic IMSB or show it in the products for sale as they did in January 2017, it is still listed on both their website and in the PDF - "Also available (not shown) Classic Single Row IMS and 06-08 IMS upgrade".

Good luck with your discussion with the shop that did the install, I hope they can at least assure you have a real LN bearing and that it can still be registered with LN.

[cnavarro]

Originally Posted by Oldcarguy

Hi Carlos, I understand your frustration. Out of curiosity I just checked the LN website and current product PDF. While the LN product page and PDF no longer have a picture of the classic IMSB or show it in the products for sale as they did in January 2017, it is still listed on both their website and in the PDF - "Also available (not shown) Classic Single Row IMS and 06-08 IMS upgrade".

Good luck with your discussion with the shop that did the install, I hope they can at least assure you have a real LN bearing and that it can still be registered with LN.

Spot on. All our buying guides and brochures still list the part since it's still available. We push updates to our site and from time to time, a part gets deactivated if there is no stock. Probably what happened with the classic Single Row. People then try to buy it when we don't actually have it.

We do not stock the classic Single Row IMS Retrofit on our shelves at LN. They are special order for the wholesale accounts only (SSF, IMC) who sell them to shops. They have to order them in large quantities and wait 10-12 weeks for them. As such, the retail price point and cost to the shops for the classic single row is actually much higher than the Single Row Pro for the reason the wholesalers have greater carrying costs and we make them in lower volumes.

In all fairness to LN, we ran many promotions over the years to shops to help subsidize tooling cost and even then, the profit they make on one job will cover the cost of the tool and then some in its first use. You can only lead a horse to water.

All we can do is try our best to educate everyone, but even then, we still have shops not qualifying jobs and putting bearings into engines that need to be torn down. Then it's our fault when they need a new engine.

[CBRacerX]

Originally Posted by cnavarro

Spot on. All our buying guides and brochures still list the part since it's still available. We push updates to our site and from time to time, a part gets deactivated if there is no stock. Probably what happened with the classic Single Row. People then try to buy it when we don't actually have it.

We do not stock the classic Single Row IMS Retrofit on our shelves at LN. They are special order for the wholesale accounts only (SSF, IMC) who sell them to shops. They have to order them in large quantities and wait 10-12 weeks for them. As such, the retail price point and cost to the shops for the classic single row is actually much higher than the Single Row Pro for the reason the wholesalers have greater carrying costs and we make them in lower volumes.

In all fairness to LN, we ran many promotions over the years to shops to help subsidize tooling cost and even then, the profit they make on one job will cover the cost of the tool and then some in its first use. You can only lead a horse to water.

All we can do is try our best to educate everyone, but even then, we still have shops not qualifying jobs and putting bearings into engines that need to be torn down. Then it's our fault when they need a new engine.

Thanks Charles - previous customer here - I have a 2001 986S that is going on the lift later this week and will need an IMS update. I'll be calling to discuss the options once I have the existing bearing type identified. As part of my due diligence, I read thru the information on your site and the companion site IMS 101 – IMS Retrofit -
I found just about everything I needed therein.

The one thing I would like to find, and I'm going to have to start looking, is somewhere to rent the faultless install tool

Keep up the good work!