CANTON, OHIO - The Timken Company and North Coast Bearings LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bearing Technologies Ltd., have agreed to a five-year extension of their strategic alliance, which has supplied kits and components to customers in the automotive and heavy truck aftermarket since 1997, when the companies began collaborating.

Timken and North Coast market and distribute differential and transmission kits and components under the product name DT Components for the light-, medium- and heavy-duty markets. "Since the inception of the DT Components product line, our focus has been on providing quality products to cover a range of applications required by the professional installer," said Tom Tecklenburg, director of the automotive and heavy-duty aftermarket for Timken. "This combination of Timken quality and North Coast kit development and packaging has proven very successful."

The alliance's offerings have grown from fewer than 100 kits in 1997 to more than 2,500 today. "We continue to offer one of the most complete lines of differential and transmission kits available in the U.S. light-, medium- and heavy-duty truck aftermarket," Tecklenburg said. "The expansion of our kit offering fit with our strategy to provide the professional installer with the right parts to do the job right the first time."