aviography

Those black rings are definitely seals and not cages, the question now becomes whether this is a "running change" by LN/FSI to avoid larger metallic particles elsewhere in the engine from entering into the IMS bearing and destroy it?

I can partially see the logic to isolate the root cause when an engine "expires" unexpectedly in the future after the LN bearing had been installed, i.e. whether the LN/FSI bearing failed on its own (particles within the bearing cavity) or when other metallic components in the engine failed (no damges in the bearing cavity).

But this is only my speculation, only LNE/FSI can provide a conclusive response.

03996

Ok, some more info......in looking at the bearing more closely, the black ring on the "back" is clearly made of some kind of soft material such as would be expected on a seal. The black ring on the front.......two things....1) it rotates when the stud is rotated....2) it is defininelty made of a metal or metallic substance and there is definitely a very small gap between the edge of the thing and the innerds, allowing you to see the edges of the ***** when you rotate the stud.

So, I think the front ring must be the cage, albeit quite different from the cages pictured on LN's website.

I'm going to send the pics to LN and ask for their confirmation.

03996

I sent pics to LN and they responded a short while ago. The bearing I have is indeed a single-sided-seal bearing.

So, if you purchase a single row replacement bearing from LN, it should look like the one in my pics.

Thanks to all for your input/comments.