I put a 355 in my 83 z28, then installed my t-5 tranny. I DID NOT put in a piloit bushing! At idle my clucth make a noise( knocking), when i push in the clutch it stops.

 

remove the trans and install a pilot bushing, you will destroy it without one

 

JamesC

 

What will it destroy? Will it screw up the crank? I do have a oil leak, I hope it's just the oil pan gasket!

 

you will screw up the end of the crank where the bushing fits in, ruin your clutch and screwup the trans input shaft! Put the bushing in!

 

Thanks for the replies. Back under the car tomorrow to pull the tranny.

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I drove it maybe 20 miles without the bushing, sometimes kinda hard. I hope I didn't screw anything up. I spent 3 days putting in the 350 swap all by myself, it would suck if I screwed it up over not putting in a $15 part.

 

yea, not a smart move

 

I wish I had pictures of what happens if you DON'T but I'm at work...

I had a guy do the auto/man swap on my car and the bugger didn't put one in. The friction disc has three rivets holding the spline hub to the friction surface, those ALL stripped out completly. When I removed the bellhousing, my clutch came out in in two large peices (the hub and the disc) as well as various other smaller peices including a busted springs and parts of the rivets. I saved the clutch, it's hanging on the wall in my garage as a not-so-gentle reminder of why NOT to cut corners. Plus, I got lucky. I just had to buy a new friction disc ($25 from Zoom).

Also, before the clutch grenaded, I also had a nasty vibration at ~2250-2500rpm on the interstate, which happend to be exactly my preferred cruising speed. My girlfriend loved it, I wasn't such a big fan.

BUT, since this issue of bearings has come up, does anybody have a preferance between the oil-impregnated bearings and the roller bearings? I bought one of both and ended up installing the roller bearing. Thoughts?

 

I PULLED THE TRANS YESTERDAY,IT DID HAVE A PILOT BUSHING IN THE CRANK. I PUT THE TRANS BACK ON AND PUT IN A NEW VACUUM ADVANCE HEI, IF I FLOOR IT ROLLING AT 20MPH I SMOKE THE TIRES! I NOW NEED TO GET HEADERS, NEW OIL PAN GASKET(I MADE THE MISTAKE OF BUYING A CORK ONE AND IT'S LEAKING BAD) NEW CLUTCH KIT AND I'M DONE.