hey, i recently put a clutch in my car and drove it for about 3-4 months. When i did the clutch i installed a solid copper or brass (whatever its made out of) pilot bearing and now its all chewed up. when i did the clutch the old bearing was not even in the crank it was a few chunks of metal sitting in the bottom of the bellhousing. When i pulled my engine a few days ago and separated the tranny i had the same thing. the bearing got chewed up in about 3-4 months. has anyone ever experienced this or know what would cause this to happen? thanks alot....

 

my first one i used is was the brass bushing, then i had to pull the tranny about 300 miles later to rebuild it, and saw the bushing was bad shape. ever since then i run the roller pilot bearing. it still looked in great shape when i just pulled the engine out a few weeks ago. the bearing has about 5,000 miles on it now

i think the roller bearing are $15 or so from any parts store.

 

Wow, that story makes me glad I used the roller bearing when I did my T56 swap!

BTW, the bearing is also available directly from GM under PN 14061685. I believe that this is actually a Lakewood part sold through GM.

 

The bushings usually fail as a result of improper installation, either of the bushing into the crank, or the trans into the bushing; or lack of lube; or a bad extension housing bushing in the trans, which puts too much force on the bushing continuously.

I prefer to use bearings also. Although, I've used countless of the bronze bushings over the years, usually with good results. The only times I've had them fail, it's been pretty easy to see why, and it was usually the extension housing bushing problem.

The bearing is available from GM, Lakewood, and Moroso, and maybe others; it's about $15 to $18 from any of them. They all look about the same. Probably all come from the Acme Pilot Bearing Co. or something.

Lots of other kinds of cars and trucks use bearings as their stock setup.

 

Acme Pilot Bearing Co! That's classic!

 

ok thanks guys, i will get the roller bearing next time i put the tranny back in.

 

May be a good idea to check the bellhousing to block alignment. Also check the trans input shaft snout for burrs or other anomalies.

RBob.