Failed gearbox bearings
 

Hi,

The bearings in the gearbox of my race / rally mini cooper S have failed. It is a 2002 RE32 cooper S. The car has done around 35-40k of racing and rallying, so the failure is not surprising.

BMW Australia will not sell the bearings, but only an entire new gearbox @ $A4500 (around $4000 US)

My mechanic has stripped the gearbox, and found details on the bearings. They are INA bearings, and we have size details and part numbers

However, INA here in Australia do not have the bearings. I have tried several INA bearing distributors in the US, but none so far have been able to help me. I think I am hitting a brick wall, and suspect that the dealers are not supposed to sell these OEM parts to third parties

Does anyone have any ideas as to where to source the bearings?? If I can't get them I am going to have to throw out the gearbox for the sake of 3 bearings, and pay $4.5k for a new one :eek2: We have been trying to source these for several weeks with no luck

There must be someone out there who has experience with rebuilding gearboxes etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

Cheers

Robbo

PS : sorry, this is a repost, as I accidentally posted it in the 2nd gen pages by mistake

Please post the bearing part numbers so as a collective we can increase your chances of finding them.

Wouldn't it be easier / less expensive to source a salvaged one.
One of our vendors (Helix13) has access to different gearing for ratio changes, possibly they know where to source the bearings also.

http://www.helix13.com/mini/products

Hi,

The parts are

INA part number 308-537ZB2 26.5x46x14mm 1 required

INA part number S233428 43x63x15mm 2 required

I've had a lot of people on the case, and it seems they are "proprietry" or "oem" and not available.

I have some major events coming up in the next couple of months, and I'm going to have to bite the bullet pretty soon and make the decision to put in a new or second hand transmission, otherwise I'm going to miss events, and dump a lot of entry fees etc.

I think I will put in a new transmission, and then look at getting bearings made or sourced to rebuild the old transmission as a spare, or to sell to a fellow mini driver. Unfortunately time is running out, and I don't want to miss the events I have coming up

Cheers

Robbo

bearing 308-537ZB2
 

So Robbo....could you tell me something? I know this is a very old post, but did you ever find the bearing 308-537ZB2? I'm currently in the same position. I've had no luck finding it yet. If you can help me at all it would be greatly appreciated. You can email me direct at booksnjava@gmail.com

The focus svt tranny is essentially the same (same exact diff) so maybe follow w/ that?