Alternative IMS repair solution

[GTF]

This is an alternative IMS bearing solution that I have just come across:- 

 

http://www.design911.co.uk/fu/pt856_1748_-cma81-cmo110/Porsche/996--911--1997-05/Intermediate-shaft/

 

The website also provides links to the installation procedure.

[JFP in PA]

This is an alternative IMS bearing solution that I have just come across:- 

 

http://www.design911.co.uk/fu/pt856_1748_-cma81-cmo110/Porsche/996--911--1997-05/Intermediate-shaft/

 

The website also provides links to the installation procedure.

 

This design has been discussed multiple times on various websites, and there are some questions about the method used to create a passage for how it gets oil, and the long term effects of running the shaft partially full of oil.

[tanny02996]

This looks like a complex solution for what would seem to be accomplished by simply removing the outer cover of the IMS bearing so that it can get lubrication from the oil bath that it's already sitting in.  No?

[JFP in PA]

This looks like a complex solution for what would seem to be accomplished by simply removing the outer cover of the IMS bearing so that it can get lubrication from the oil bath that it's already sitting in.  No?

 

 

Yes, but it gets worse.  If you look at the picture of the bearing on the site, in the upper right corner of the photo is a metal punch and a replacement oil pump drive shaft with a slot ground into it.  While they don't mention it in the linked instructions, they want you to take a punch and hit it with a hammer to put a very tightly controlled size hole in the plug that keeps oil out of the IMS shaft on the oil pump end, then replace the OEM pump drive shaft with the one that has a slot ground in it to allow oil into the IMS shaft to "pressure" lubricate the IMS bearing.  Problems here are that there is no way you are going to use a hammer and punch to put a very specific tolerance hole in anything, and then you are left with a partially flooded IMS shaft, which is going to side load the bearings.  Add to that you are replacing the already failure prone investment cast oil pump drive with one that has been weakened further by grinding a slot in it.  When the oil pump drive snaps in one of these engines, it is all over as you instantly lose all oil delivery, there is no coming back from that failure.  The entire concept leaves me weak.