Two mates in Australia asked me to post on this thread...
"Hi Chris, the "cost" of the failure of the KOR branded idler gear bearings was extremely high - complete strip down of engine & transmission (note - both tranny case & drop gear housing in the skip), drop gears in the skip, block jet hot washed before new gallery & frost plugs, everything inspected, new bearings throughout, new oil pump, new oil filter housing, new oil pressure relief plunger & spring, crank cleaned, checked for straight, journals polished (std/std), head stripped, everything checked, cleaned.... Some might say assembly error but, no, idler thrust clearances were checked 6 ways from Sunday. The KOR bearings simply blew up. Fortunately, only a little aluminum got to the bearings/journals/other wear surfaces. Sad, because the PROPER bearings were readily available. I bought Schaefler Group German made SCH 1212 INAs for just $8.24 Canadian each...all costs in, but having to drive a few miles to pick them up. The pre-A+ idler bearings are not strictly an automotive bearing AND they have been available to replace the Torrington 1212s all along. The major suppliers have done us all a disservice in sourcing cheaper, poorer quality product and offering it as suitable for use."
Bear in mind, I had built a 100+ 1098 with Russell Engineering pistons, RE 266S cam & faced lifters, hardened exhaust seats in an OEM 12G295 head (Graham Russell cleaned up a little under the seats), seats cut for Paul Ivey race valves, Cooper S valve springs, Keith Calver 1.4:1 steel rockers, MED damper, lightened flywheel & backing plate, orange clutch disc & spring, over a fully rebuilt CR box with cross-pin diff, standard crank that was straight, polished up std/std (shop said 'excellent crank') with centre main strap, HIF44 and Maniflow Cooper Freeflow header & twin box exhaust...the Mini was going to be driven.
The KOR branded idler gear bearings literally blew up on the Alaska Hwy. in Yukon, Canada. Headed north on the Stewart-Hassiar Hwy. in the late afternoon before, I detected a very slight hissing, whisper that we could not isolate. After I drove the TSD section out of Watson Lake my co-driver took over for the transit north. Before we reached Johnsons Crossing, we were looking to drain the oil, remove the filter...on doing that and inserting a long magnet, I said, "We're done." Barely 1,500 miles on the power unit.
After the rebuild, we traveled on a 3,000 mile return trip to Colorado with 2 mechanics in their Minis with 1275s. The fresh 1185 pulled up the long climbs in southern Oregon & Utah in 4th while the 1275s were downshifting to 3rd. With $16.48 Canadian total in 2 new idler gear bearings those issues were gone.
I raised a bit of a stink about those KOR bearings and on asking major suppliers at IMM in Bristol...none had any on offer.
Our collective message to the major suppliers must be 'sell us parts intended for vehicles that will be driven'. The 'trailer queens' ought to be the minority. In the meantime, we must all help each other to ferret out the crap, call the sellers to account and identify quality replacements.
In the following photo, at top - one of the 2 destroyed KOR bearing cups (both the same) and below - two 1212 bearings one Torrington, one German that I removed from older gearboxes as examples
