Bearing numbers for M97 gearbox rebuild

[TheRadBaron]

Hello, this is my first post here. I'll get right to it.
I'm rebuilding the M97 transmission out of my '97 R1100GS and I'm looking for some info on the bearings. I'm sure that I can save a lot of money by buying bearings from a supplier rather than the BMW bearings. I understand that all but one of the bearings in the gearbox are standard bearing numbers, being:
6204
6205
6303
6304
I know just enough about bearings to know that there are a lot of different options given a particular number. In this case, I'm concerned with the type of seals and the clearance (i.e. C3).
I plan to buy high quality bearings such as NTN or SKF, but I want to make sure that I'm getting the proper bearings. I found reference somewhere giving NTN part numbers that just added the suffix LU to the end of the bearing number (i.e. 6204LU), but I think these might be sealed on one side only. Or I might be misunderstanding the description. I want to make absolutely sure that I get the best bearings for the job since I don't plan to have the gearbox apart again any time soon.
Can anyone shed some light? Thanks very much.

 

[argos]

hello,I rebuilt an 1150 box and found that here in the UK no saving could be made so I used standard ones,that might not be the case in the US of A.On the ADV site there is a chap called Anton Largadier ,sorry spelling may be incorrect,he is a bit of a gearbox guru and very generous in giving advice,try to get in touch I am sure he can tell you.Think he is in Virginia

 

[TheRadBaron]

Thanks. I did some more research and ended up buying SKF bearings with the suffix 2RSJEM. I was able to find some good specs on these bearings. They're double sealed, C3 bearings, and SKF is a quality manufacturer. The cost savings were considerable over the BMW parts. One bearing in the gearbox is a nonstandard size so I had to buy it from BMW, but the other 5 bearings were standard.
I just hope the bearings don't say "Made in China" when I get them. In this "global economy", even top shelf companies are having their products made in bottom shelf countries. I'm sure the reputable manufacturers hold their Chinese plants to relatively high quality control standards, but it still doesn't give me much confidence.

 

[Tsiklonaut]

NTN

Tough choice, I had the same dilemma with my '98 box on full overhaul. SKFs were among the cheapest alternatives but after some research I decided to go with the best and the most expensive ones: NTN and under the proper "Made in Japan" badge, they were slightly older versions I got from warehouse (not sure NTN even makes them in Japan anymore since they were considerably more expensive than the competition, but people don't care about high quality these days but a cheap prices...). I consulted with a bearings specialist and he said NTNs are the longest lasting bearings he knows after many years working in the field. Note the genuine NTNs are hard to find bearings, at least in the continental Europe here. In the internet, eBay and webshops you mostly find NTN-China-shete for suspiciously cheap prices, basically chinese copies with faked "NTN" logos that are nowhere near the genuine NTN quality. The best if you know a genuine NTN importer/reseller source to get 'em from to be sure you get the proper high quality ones.

 

[TheRadBaron]

That's odd. The SKF bearings that I bought were among the more expensive options. I'm in America, though. Maybe that have something to do with the difference in proces.
All the NTN bearings I found were relatively inexpensive. They were probably Chinese and that's what scared me off from them.
Plus, I was having a hard time finding technical information about NTN part numbers. My local bearing supplier has guys working the counter who don't know what they're talking about and/or aren't interested in helping, so I don't go there anymore.
Hopefully these SKF bearings are high-quality units. I'm confident that they will be as long as they're made somewhere decent. If they show up and are Chinese I'll probably consider sending them back. I ordered them from Amazon and the pictures shown of the bearings indicate they're made in USA, although I know that might not be the case for every bearing. We'll see.

 

[Pekkavee]

Thanks. I did some more research and ended up buying SKF bearings with the suffix 2RSJEM. I was able to find some good specs on these bearings. They're double sealed, C3 bearings, and SKF is a quality manufacturer. The cost savings were considerable over the BMW parts. One bearing in the gearbox is a nonstandard size so I had to buy it from BMW, but the other 5 bearings were standard.
I just hope the bearings don't say "Made in China" when I get them. In this "global economy", even top shelf companies are having their products made in bottom shelf countries. I'm sure the reputable manufacturers hold their Chinese plants to relatively high quality control standards, but it still doesn't give me much confidence.

So which 5 bearings did you buy?

Pekka

 

[TheRadBaron]

The larger bearing on the intermediate shaft is some sort of nonstandard size so I ordered that one from BMW. It's part# 23 12 2 325 522
The other five shaft bearings are all standard sizes. You need one 6204, two 6205, one 6303, and one 6304. So the parts I ordered were;
SKF 6204-2RSJEM
SKF 6205-2RSJEM (two of these)
SKF 6303-2RSJEM
SKF 6304-2RSJEM
Hopefully these are optimal bearings.

 

[Pekkavee]

Thanks.
I will add this to my service and repair parts list.

Pekka

 

[TheRadBaron]

The SKF bearings I ordered from Amazon were being shipped from a few separate places. The first box arrived today and it contained the two 6205 bearings. I was very pleased to see "Made in USA" printed on the boxes. The bearings are labeled SKF Explorer and a quick web search makes the Explorer series sound like a very high-quality bearing, though most of the information I found was SKF promotional stuff.
Hopefully the rest of the bearings in my order turn out to be the same.