I bought an 85 GSL a few months back and last week, shifty no worky. It went out gradually..it got hard to shift, then impossible. Thought it was the slave as it was moving due to stripped bolts. Had those helicoiled, but still no shift. When the car is started it would lunge while in gear.

Pulled the tranny today and found that there was absolutely NO pilot bearing installed to begin with, but I had been driving it for 3 months already, and the shift fork has a fine crack down the middle. The T/O bearing seemed in good shape, as is the clutch.

Any ideas why it would go out completely? Would the crack spread under pressure not allowing full engagement ya think?

I'm changing out everything to make sure...the tranny, as previously threaded, was only saved by Redline oil from screaming at me....new tranny and the rest going in....

 

Are you sure the races weren't just gone on the pilot? When the SA wouldn't shift for me, I found the pilot bearing's housing was al that was left. The seal and all the rollers/races were gone, the clutch disc broken into 3 large chunks and countless smaller ones. The car was like this from the previous owner.

Maybe the pilot bearing was there and it just disintegrated into nothing over time.

 

Funny thing is...I actually found a brand new pilot bearing and seal in the glove box...looks like someone fucked up. So 10,000 miles and no more action in the clutch.
Replace time.