IMS Install experience... - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

IMS experience… Thought I’d pass along some good and not so good events with my recent IMS bearing/clutch/flywheel change on my 2000 box. Things that went right: 1) Removal of all components like bumper cover, bumper, exhaust, braces etc. were a no brainer. Just keep your screws in plastic bags or identified in some way that makes them easier to identify when putting it back together. 2) Tranny removal wasn’t bad. I have the car on a maxjax lift and used a hydraulic table to move up under the tranny for removal. I’m a one man band so the hydraulics worked out well. 3) Clutch/flywheel/pressure plate removal presented no issues. 4) I used Wayne’s method (as found in 101 projects…) of setting up the car for pulling the IMS bearing. I.e. set screws on the IMS gear etc. All went as expected. The double row bearing came out fine. As a side note; Bearing has ~83,000 miles on it. It appeared to be fine. It turned smooth with zero shaft play. It was full of motor oil however. Things that didn’t go quite right: 1) Bearing install: I purchased a single row OEM bearing and modified shaft from Pelican. I would have liked to purchase the LNE version but figured I’d just change this one with the next clutch change. I put an aluminum brace on the flywheel flange and motor case. I put the new bearing connected to the LNE insertion tool into the freezer overnight and the proceeded to install the next morning. I cleaned the IMS well with a paper towel. I started the bearing in the shaft and then tapped it with a dead blow hammer… it started ok but then didn’t seem to be going in very well so I tapped a little harder (I should have stopped…) and at some point I sort of hit the insertion tool and the cross member at the same time… I wound up cocking the bearing in the shaft. Ugg… now what? It was really stuck. The original LNE hex adapter tool of the bearing puller of course does not fit the new modified shaft of the Pelican bearing… so I called LNE and for $16 they sent me a new hex adapter to fit the new shaft. At least it would have fit the new shaft if I’d had an LNE bearing/shaft but it did go on the Pelican bearing shaft about 5 threads. Once all connected it took a few turns and the bearing came free with no damage to the bearing or shaft. I found out later from a friend on the forum that I could have just pulled it out with the extractor that came with the LNE kit. Ghezz… I feel dumb! But it came out ok. Back to the freezer went the bearing/tool overnight. I took some BP spray lube and coated the inside of the IMS and then wiped all if it out with a paper towel hopefully leaving a micro fine layer of the BP material. This time I started the bearing with a plastic tipped hammer and took it as far as I could and then took a 10” 2x4 between the insertion tool and the hammer to tap it the rest of the way (all an effort to avoid the cross member). It went right in with no issues. Yay! The spiral spring clip was a pain but it finally went on ok. 2) Now to put on the IMS cover w/spacers. The IMS was cocked a bit to the right of the hole so I removed the left and right rear tensionsers and placed the cover on the bearing shaft. I gently (GENTLY!) pushed the assembly over using a screw driver against the engine case and bearing cover. Once close I pushed on the cover and it went on somewhat. I then tightened the three sacrificial screws in sequence until the cover went on. I then replace the three screws with new ones from the bearing kit. Torqued everything according to the book and job done. So what would I have done different with the bearing install? 1) I would have probably locked the entire engine at TDC as there was some mid-point concern that I would have slipped a timing chain on a gear. It didn’t happen but after reading some forum posts it concerned me a bit. Locking all you can on the engine seems to be the best idea. Although Wayne’s method worked out fine. 2) After installing a new fly wheel and clutch/pressure plate I did have a slight issue installing the tranny back onto the engine. It seemed to get about an inch from seating home and stop… something was hanging it up. I removed it several times to try and figure out what it was… Still don’t know. But after some gentle wrangling it finally moved into place. I bolted it down and then went to install a new slave cylinder. This was a pain. I should have just installed it when I had the tranny out sitting on the cart. It would have been simple to just plug in the hydraulic line once the tranny was in place. Lesson learned. 3) In hindsight I prob should have removed the catalytic converts at the 3 bolt flanges. It would have been easier to move around as there wasn’t much elbow room. The rest of the install went pretty well. I cleaned and degreased everything and painted the anti-sway bar and powder coated what I could. I changed the oil and tranny gear oil. Bled the clutch. Once all back together the car would not run worth a damn. Turns out that when I tipped the engine down a bit when removing the tranny I pulled off the intake hose from the throttle assembly. Put it back on and all ran great. Not sure if this experience will help anyone but if it does then it’s all good. Cheers, John

Sorry, I should have re-sized the pics...