Wednesday, Sean O. dropped it off because it wasn't shifting. He also wanted me to do the left side ball joints before he got new tires/alignment. I did the right side last time. Left still wasn't loose, but when I got them off the vehicle i could tell they weren't long for this world. Good hunch.

Anyway, no shift. I thought we'd change the fluid. It was very burnt looking. It seemed to help at first, but then the problem recurred.
"what could cause this?" I asked myself. It's almost as if the clutch is not releasing, but i know it is.
Clutch pedal is fine, clutch releases and engages, no slipping, obvious release. It doesn't seem to be internal to the transmission. It acts quite like i have my foot off the clutch pedal in neutral.
Hmmmm.
I ran it by my brother the genius.
"pilot bearing" he says.
"D'oh" says I. "Of course!"

The pilot bearing is binding. This causes the transmission input shaft to spin, almost as if the clutch was engaged when it is not. It doesn't spin as fast as the engine, as it would if the clutch actually was engaged, but it spins enough to cause a problem.

So I got it apart. Dropped the trans, removed clutch. Clutch is down to the minimum, though not to the rivets yet. Spec says replace. It might last another year or so, but not worth the labor to drop the trans again. Pilot bearing is shot. The little needle bearings in it fall out, along with rust and dust, and some of the needles look like hand rolled play-dough.

The input shaft to the transmission rides in this bearing, so of course it also looks like crap. I de-burred it and polished it. It was very shiny and appeared smooth when i was done.
For the record, I've always disliked needle bearing type pilot bearings. Ford uses them on some vehicles. Most others use brass bushings.

I put the whole kaboodle in (it came with the kit), added fluid, dropped it down, started up.
"ker-chirp" then fine,- shut off.
"That sounded like the pilot was binding." thought i. "Crap!" thought i.
I started it again. Same.
3rd time no noise.
let's try to put it in gear.
Nope.
Damn!
I have to do the whole thing again tomorrow.

Whatever shall i do to make sure I don't have another needle bearing pilot failure?
I suppose it actually depends on what it all looks like when i get it out. The input shaft looked salvageable to me, but these needle bearings seem pretty picky.

to be continued..........
s.k. friday, 9/29, 1:19 AM

Friday, 9/29
9:38AM
Coffee and a trip to NAPA

11:02AM
I have removed the interior shifter, and successfully raised the vehicle. again.

Maybe I'll eat some cereal.

12:31PM
Operation "Eat Cereal"
Objective: Locate and engage oatmeal. Consume.
Mission Accomplished.

Oh, and i got the transmission out. Again.

The pilot bearing looks unharmed, but I am replacing it anyway. Removing it might not be too fun.
The input shaft looks as good as it did when I polished it yesterday.
Running my fingertips over it though I can feel irregularities. I slid the new pilot on it and it isn't entirely smooth spinning. I'll have to smooth the shaft a tad more.

3:04
crap.
input shaft appears to still be binding. Not as badly as yesterday, but still not good. Hard shifting still.
I should have measured the runout of the shaft.

3rd time's a charm.

5:00PM

Input shaft has .009" runout. I don't have the spec, but that's quite a bit of runout. .003"
might be tolerable. It actually looks like it's out of round rather than bent. There are dark heat lines on the high spots. Time to call the owner and discuss it.