I seem to keep eating up my pilot bearings approximately ever 200+ miles.
I've recently put in a spec 3 and billet flywheel (now running the stock flywheel after being turned by a local machine shop)

As previously stated, with the billet flywheel i destroyed a pilot bearing in a matter of 175 miles. Currently at 280 miles w/ the same pressure plate and clutch disk, but NOW with the STOCK flywheel and again I seem to have destroyed the bearing again.

The car now has (as it did w/ the new flywheel) a bad rotational vibration that gets worse w/ increasing RPMS and the Pro 5.0 sounds like there's a baby in the backseat w/ a rattle (it's so F'in loud!)

Here are my thoughts...
1. Unbalanced pressure plate (AND possibly flywheel too)
2. Something is not aligned correctly and thus is causing the vibration which becomes more pronounced as the bearing is eaten up.
a. What could be misaligned?
b. If something is misaligned, why wouldn't the vibration be obvious from the start, especially if it is the clutch/flywheel.
3. Bad drive shaft?
4. Bad u-joints on the tail of the drive shaft?
5. DOES LIFE JUST SUCK?
6. I've searched and found some stuff, but it seems that there are never any answers, just dead posts after a few suggestions. I'm hoping some of these people can enlighten the rest of us as to what solved their issues. I found one post concerning a ROCK between the tranny and cross member, but I'm not thinking it's that simple (or un/lucky). LOL

I'm taking it apart AGAIN for the 3rd time in 3 weekends and putting another pilot bearing in, and getting the stuff ZERO BALANCED as a last resort. Then it's back to a GM Z06 clutch to see if that eliminates the vibrations.

Please help!

...and THANKS in advanced.

- Jeff

 

trans input shaft bent?

 

Like said above, check the input shaft. +,The bearings in your T-56 in bad shape? Is your bellhousing distorted, cracked damaged in any way? Did it come off real hard the first time? Does it mount up flush w/ the block it's entire mounting surface? Are the dowels to line it up in place & fit properly?

 

i had a bad pilot bearing from the factory. Wound up costing GM a whole trans. Took out the input, main and tailshaft. Took 7k miles to do it tho.

 

well looking at it and using a straightedge it doesn't appear bent...it has a SLIGHT amount of play in it (which i assume is normal)...

 

I'm not sure what you mean by bad bearings in my T-56...How would I know what to look for in order to answer that question w/ the correct information?

My bellhousing is coming off this morning and i'll find out for SURE if it is screwed up or not...IT was a B*TCH to take off the first time so there was quite a bit of pulling and stuggling. We had to heat the dowls to loosen it (wondering if the bellhousing is warped where we did that (S*IT SH*T SHI*). It seems to mount flush, but that will be investigated one more time. I will match the bellhousing to the tranny and then also mount it to the block and see what happens. Everything lines up really easily until i get to about 3/4" of an inch and have to use longer bolts to pull the housings together (assumed I just didn't have the input shaft lined up PERFECTLY w/ the pilot bearing) but it pulls together VERY easily, so i can't see that causing damage.

THANKS for your help thus far and let me know what you think at this point after reading my reply

- Jeff

 

try one of the pilot bushings, not the bearings, maybe they would work better for you, they are the same crap, its function is the same but some prefer to use the bearing
thats what I been told
David

 

Sounds like those spec clutches are absolute garbage regardless of stage. Every forum that I have been in someone is having problems with their clutches. Get a Dual Friction Centerforce Clutch and I GUARANTEE YOU WILL BE VERY HAPPY with your install. I Installed mine with an SLP Billet Steel Flywheel and most of the vibrations in my car have gone away. The others are just related to extremely warped rotors and bad bushings.

 

Well the input shaft, speed gear & counter shafts inside the T-56 are suppoerted by tapered roller bearings. If one is bad it will have play/cause noise.

I think your problem starts with having to draw the trans up with the mounting bolts. Every one I've done slides right up to the bellhousing no problem. You need to figure out what is causing it to bind up that last 3/4 of an inch.

 

Hey Wrencher (and others!) - Thanks for sticking w/ me on this post...it's good to see those that follow a thread and continue their support.

I yanked out the console, shifter, drive shaft, tranny, bellhousing, clutch, flywheel, etc, etc in 1 hour and 15 minutes! Who says practice doesn't make perfect?

Here's what I found today! ... After pulling everything apart I took a gander at the pilot bearing and to my surprise (sarcasm) I found the pilot to be "busted". The INNER bearing unit had some completely out of the housing that it normally resides in. It was sitting at the back of the housing in the input shaft, in perfectly good condition. It just POPPED OUT!? (WTF) It MIGHT have come lose when putting the tranny back in and drawing it up w/ the bolts, but who knows. Weird, huh?

I tend to agree w/ you on the realignment of the input shaft. I've gotta figure out what is causing that. That is actually, my GOAL of this tranny pull. If nothing else, I'm GOING to get this aligned correctly so it slides in as it should.

Second concern: I'm using my stock flywheel w/ this setup because the old setup (WITH the new spec billet flywheel) had HORRIBLE vibrations. That seemed to go away until the pilot popped out! At any rate, now i have to decide if i want to take the clutch and flywheel and have them 0 balanced or just put everything back the way it is (orig. flywheel, spec3) and hope the pilot doesn't pop out...(and sell the flywheel :-\)

Decisions, Decisions, De-FREAKIN-cisions.

- Jeff

 

you said you had play, does the input shaft move forward abd backwards or left right up down

 

just a suggestion but check for abnormal crankshaft play, back and forth, maybe the crank walks and messes up the pilot, just an idea if you dont find anything else wrong

 

Yor possible alignment problem could also cause vibrations too.
Maybe get a pilot bushing as suggest here b-4 those are alot more stout. Clean the dowels & the bellhousing recievers & mounting surface. Make sure everthing is perfect. If the trans dont slide in all the way home in the re-install ,figure out why.

 

The 00'-'02 T56 Manuals are know for having housings that are not perfect and caused probs