Pulled the tranny to do a clutch job and decided to pop a new pilot in there. These were my findings:

Firstly, there was no seal

I could stick the tip of my finger in there and actually move the bearing back and forth slightly. Couldn't pull it out but it was definitely moving.

Got out the blind hole pullers and popped it out. Didn't take much effort.

Measured and found the hole for the bearing to be a matter of thousandths bigger than it should be. New bearing slides in and out just as easily as the old one.

The inside of the shaft (where the bearing goes) was all kinds of scratched up w/ a ton of grime and crud hiding behind the bearing. I've heard that this space is NOT to be scratched for whatever reason.

My questions:
What does that seal do? does it keep oil in that comes from the engine? does it guard against dirt and grime?

I found that there was some sort of plug in the back of the space where the bearing goes... It didn't really look machined/original and seemed a different color metal than its surroundings. A quick magnet test deemed it not a copper or brass plug is it attracted the magnet. Is that supposed to be there?

Is it bad for the E-shaft to have that kind of scratching in that spot? Or is the 13B RE-EGI not applicable?

The plan at this point is to use some of that assembly lock type stuff to hold the bearing in place, install the new seal and throw it all back together with the new clutch as planned.

Hmmm...

Opinions and thoughts welcome. I'll be down at the shop to get some work done on it wednesday.

 

Its ok for the bearing to be a little loose in there. I wouldn't put any lock type stuff on it other
than a good blob of hi-temp grease. The seal holds the bearing in and protects it from crud
getting in there a ruining the needle bearings. Remember theres a ton of dust from the clutch
always flying around this thing.

The missing seal is common and is forgotten a lot. Usually leads to a failed bearing down the
line. I always change the pilot if I pull the tranny, its too cheap and easy at that point.

The scratches and thing in the end of the shaft I wouldn't worry about. It could be the
previous pilot bearing had been fused to the inside of the shaft and someone drilled it out to
put in a new one. I know on my car that happened when I first got the car and I couldn't do
the work. The place that did it in NJ had to grind out the old bearing, weld up the shaft a bit
and redrill the shaft for the bearing to go in. That was 30+ years ago. When I changed it
(~8 years ago), it look like crap in there but the bearing I took out was ok and I put in my
new bearing and seal and it works fine to this day.

 

there is a plug in there too, it seals up the oil gallery in the E shaft.

make sure you grease up the new bearing before you put it in

 

Ok thanks guys for clearing that up for me. I do intend to use the high-temp grease provided with the clutch kit. I won't worry about any of the other oddities and just put everything back together the way its supposed to be.

Thanks for the helpful words!!