Originally Posted by JFP in PA
Fist of all, all ball and roller bearings as subject to both wear and possible failure.
Some people, for various reason, do not want to go the Solution route, so the ceramic hybrids are the second, but very sound choice.
While the hybrids wear out and eventually need replacement, a limited number of them have reportedly failed, not because of the design as much as other factors (installation issues, debris circulating within the engine due to other component failures, etc.). One of the largest failure factors involved the single row design, which is rather susceptible to misalignment "cocking" during installation's (this is a major problem even with all steel retrofits because many times excessive force or attempted partial extraction is used to attempt to correct this, and which damages the races and ball cages, leading to anything from shortened life spans to near immediate failures. This is why LN had always recommended not reusing a bearing that has to be extracted due to improper installation.). Several years ago, Jake developed and perfected a totally new extraction and installation tool call the Faultless Installation Tool. If you have ever use the original installation tool kit, it requires smacking the installation tool rather stoutly with a mallet to drive the bearing into the shaft, and if the bearing is not perfectly aligned with the shaft, cocking will occur. With the Faultless tooling, the possibility for cocking is completely eliminated along with the use of a mallet, and successful installation is nearly effortless. Because of the high probability for damaging single row bearings during installations, LN mandated use of the new tool when installing the newer "Single Row Pro" ceramic hybrid bearing, which is actually a dual row bearing that fits into the single row shaft. Having used the new tool, and seen how much easier and faster you get a perfect installation, it is now used by many shops for all style retrofits, including the Solution. So moving to this newer installation has all but eliminated the problems created by the process, as well as most of the premature failures.
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