***I looked back at your post and realized I misunderstood. The clip in the Pelican Parts kit does look wider and on the dual row engines holds a spacer in place rather than fitting into a groove in the bearing.

Yes, I reused the original cir-/wire clip, as mine wasn`t damaged. The bearing I used was different from the factory NSK bearing, I actually used two bearings and machined the groove on one of them at the same exact position as the original.

Yes I reused the original clip.

Ah, thanks for that info and that makes sense as the Pelican bearing is single row. And I was planning on buying the pelican kit but now I'm not sure if the center bolt will be compatible with the OEM dual row bearing.

Does anyone know?

Oh, yes, I remember reading your thread now.

Thanks for the reply.

Does anyone have a clip out of their dual row bearing laying around after installing a new bearing? I would love to buy one from someone.

I have a '97 and '01 engine that I can pull the bearings on later this week. Not sure which bearing the '01 has and the flywheel is still on, but there's a good chance I can salvage the clip from the '97.

Hey, thanks a lot, I would appreciate it, that would be great! No rush as I'm just getting started putting this engine back together after a year and a half, argh. And I'm still trying to locate a source for a new ring but the suppliers I found are manufacturers so they don't usually stock or sell these rings individually. Still more research to do.

Hey JFP, have you ever had trouble and destroyed the retaining ring when removing a bearing? Just wondering what went wrong. I thought maybe I did something to the ring when using the homemade tools to extract but I don't think the ring was or could be damaged until it's out of the groove and approaching the extraction tool tube and this never happened until I used the LN tool. I did try to center the tube and to minimize the chance of this happening. Also, I figured the beveled edge of the tube and LN design would avoid any binding. Or maybe the ring was damaged when originally installed; that might explain the trouble I had with the homemade tools. Any ideas? (Just curious at this point....)

We see the dual row wire retainer deformed when the bearing is not pulled straight, you may have done this before you switched to the LN tool. We have never seen one damaged from the factory, only after someone blew the retrofit and flat-bedded the car to us to finish it. As we never reuse them, they just get tossed.

Thanks for that info, makes sense as I was struggling with that first extraction method. Just glad I didn't keep cranking on it as everything else seems ok. It actually damaged the LN tool slightly but that's an easy fix with some light sanding where the tool was damaged.

Hey JFP, when the engine is without the IMSB, is it ok to rotate the engine or can that cause damage to the chains, pulleys or anything else? Mostly just curious although I'm still wondering if I should rotate the engine while the heads are off to inspect each cylinder. The 2 showing at TDC look good with no markings so not sure if it's better to inspect all or just go with what I can see now. (Yes, I know bore scoring starts at the lower end.). And finally, the pistons have a fair amount of flaky carbon that I'd like to remove so rotating engine is better for that process. Thoughts?

Thank you.

If the heads are off, it should be fine; if the heads are on, not so much as these are interference engines and you would not be the first to bend a valve rotating it by hand.................

Yup, heads are off.

When rotating engine without the heads, what about the timing chain gears? I currently have them zip tied to the chain to maintain timing somewhat so that obviously won't work when rotating. I assume it's easy enough to install them back and get the timing right afterwards? And then what about the other ends of the timing chains when rotating, the ends connected to the IMS? Do the chains stay attached without getting caught and grinding? I've never heard mention of any problems so maybe there's no issue.

(Yes, I know I'm overthinking this but better safe than sorry....)

Thanks for the help!

You need to reallocate the cams when doing a rebuild, too many chances that something will be out of wack.