Desperate for Advice - Pilot Bearing Lasted 5,000 miles
#1
Desperate for Advice - Pilot Bearing Lasted 5,000 miles
My pilot bearing just grenaded itself again for the second time in 6 months.
I created this thread this past October: https://ls1tech.com/forums/manual-tr...ed-advice.html
I can't continue to dump money into clutch/transmission parts until I figure out what in the world is going wrong. The first pilot bearing that went out on me only lasted 23,000 miles. The 2nd pilot bearing that just went out only lasted 5,000 miles and took my T56 input shaft with it again........So I know something major is going on and I'm obviously missing something.
Current set up as of 2nd pilot bearing failure: all parts have 28,000 miles on them except pilot bearing
-New pilot bearing
-Monster 28lb flywheel
-Monster Stage 2 pressure plate and clutch
-GM slave cylinder
-GM master cylinder
-eBay speed bleeder line
-TDP Stage 2 T56 with repaired input shaft
Planning to purchase:
-GM LS7 clutch
-Factory flywheel or lightweight flywheel
-New slave cylinder
-Tick adjustable master cylinder
-New input shaft or repair the old one again
-Bronze pilot bushing
The only thing I can speculate as the cause is a faulty slave cylinder or a bent clutch disc. I've always had a disengagement issue but hopefully that can be taken care of with the Tick Adj master cylinder or shimming the clutch if needed.
Am I missing something here that should be obvious? I can't keep paying $1500 every 5000 miles when another pilot bearing goes out.
Can anyone explain in detail how to measure for a clutch shim?
Also, I think I need new motor mounts because they're the original ones. I replaced the transmission mount bushing the last time my pilot bearing failed with a polyurethane one. Could this be causing an alignment issue between the engine and trans?
Any advice or help would be appreciated.
I created this thread this past October: https://ls1tech.com/forums/manual-tr...ed-advice.html
I can't continue to dump money into clutch/transmission parts until I figure out what in the world is going wrong. The first pilot bearing that went out on me only lasted 23,000 miles. The 2nd pilot bearing that just went out only lasted 5,000 miles and took my T56 input shaft with it again........So I know something major is going on and I'm obviously missing something.
Current set up as of 2nd pilot bearing failure: all parts have 28,000 miles on them except pilot bearing
-New pilot bearing
-Monster 28lb flywheel
-Monster Stage 2 pressure plate and clutch
-GM slave cylinder
-GM master cylinder
-eBay speed bleeder line
-TDP Stage 2 T56 with repaired input shaft
Planning to purchase:
-GM LS7 clutch
-Factory flywheel or lightweight flywheel
-New slave cylinder
-Tick adjustable master cylinder
-New input shaft or repair the old one again
-Bronze pilot bushing
The only thing I can speculate as the cause is a faulty slave cylinder or a bent clutch disc. I've always had a disengagement issue but hopefully that can be taken care of with the Tick Adj master cylinder or shimming the clutch if needed.
Am I missing something here that should be obvious? I can't keep paying $1500 every 5000 miles when another pilot bearing goes out.
Can anyone explain in detail how to measure for a clutch shim?
Also, I think I need new motor mounts because they're the original ones. I replaced the transmission mount bushing the last time my pilot bearing failed with a polyurethane one. Could this be causing an alignment issue between the engine and trans?
Any advice or help would be appreciated.
#3
TECH Addict
+1 you cannot count on the dowels to do it right.. I've found several on various brands that had at least one that was wrong. You can buy some that have an offset for correcting alignment.
#5
I put the flywheel, clutch, and bell housing on first, and then I put the transmission case up and bolt it to the bell housing. Am I supposed to be attaching the bell housing + trans before I mount it to the engine? How do I align the bell housing? It's the OEM bell housing to my knowledge.
And yes, the pilot bearing was greased when installed. I'm sure all of the grease dried up when the bearing went bad. I'm scared to run another pilot bearing instead of a bronze bushing because new input shafts aren't cheap......
#6
TECH Addict
How tight is the hole/attachment in the bell housing to the transmission? Sometimes the bell is lined up fine, but I have had a couple T56 and T5's that had just a little too much play in the bell to transmission junction, i used some bushings around the bolts because The factory holes were just a little loose, and added up to about 50 thousands offset.. Also make sure the front and rear surfaces of the bell housing are parallel, I got a brand new SFI one that was aftermarket that wasn't,, caused all kinds of grief with the clutch throwout and pilot bearings..
#7
How tight is the hole/attachment in the bell housing to the transmission? Sometimes the bell is lined up fine, but I have had a couple T56 and T5's that had just a little too much play in the bell to transmission junction, i used some bushings around the bolts because The factory holes were just a little loose, and added up to about 50 thousands offset.. Also make sure the front and rear surfaces of the bell housing are parallel, I got a brand new SFI one that was aftermarket that wasn't,, caused all kinds of grief with the clutch throwout and pilot bearings..
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#9
Here's another good video showing the process:
#10
TECH Addict
iTrader: (14)
The flywheel burn marks are leading me to say the input shaft bearings are toast and if you've always had disengagement issues then the problem was never truly fixed
Make sure you use NEE flywheel bolts, and they are torqued in the correct pattern in two separate passes
Make sure the pressure plate bolts are all torqued evenly in the star cross pattern
A shim would not cause an issue like this.
I've never had a problem with a pilot bearing, Jason at Tdp built my trans and clutch and sold me an oem pilot bearing.
It says you're in dfw, just go up there and talk to jason, he will spend 2 hours explaining exactly what happened. He's like Sheldon from big bang theory about transmissions and clutches
Make sure you use NEE flywheel bolts, and they are torqued in the correct pattern in two separate passes
Make sure the pressure plate bolts are all torqued evenly in the star cross pattern
A shim would not cause an issue like this.
I've never had a problem with a pilot bearing, Jason at Tdp built my trans and clutch and sold me an oem pilot bearing.
It says you're in dfw, just go up there and talk to jason, he will spend 2 hours explaining exactly what happened. He's like Sheldon from big bang theory about transmissions and clutches