So putting in a new clutch and bearings. Flywheel is still good. I have the transmission off the car and in my room😭. But now I have the new parts, do I have to remove the flywheel to remove the pilot bearing. If I do, what do I need to remove the flywheel?

 

no need to remove flywheel to change the pilot bearing. you will need a small puller though. its one of those things where the right tool makes it a ~30 second job, but the wrong tool its impossible

 

I bought the Mazda pilot bearing puller years and years ago and it's paid for itself time and time again. I highly recommend it, as the fitment for removal is perfect. Yes the job can be done with an aftermarket puller. I haven't had consistent luck using them. I bought the Mazda tool and it makes the job less than a 2 minute job. Other guys swear by packing the pilot bearing with grease or bread and compressing the stuff to push the bearing out. Tried it and it never worked quite right for me.

 

Atkins Rotary still sells one I believe

 

Agreed with what is said above and buy the right tool. I did use bread to remove mine but it was a pain in the *** to do it on my back.

 

Just get the right tool and pilot bearing removal is easy. Either the Mazda one, or equivalent substitute. I've been using this one from Harbor Freight for many years which works really well: https://www.harborfreight.com/automo...ece-62601.html

If you build engines frequently, I'd spend the extra cash on the Mazda tool, but for yanking out the occasional bearing, the HF tool works fine and will do enough bearings to pay for itself.

 

Having tried the grease and bread trick multiple times, I would also recommend just getting the correct tool and saving yourself the aggravation.

 

besides greasy bread isn't very tasty

 

I've been using a standard pilot bearing puller on the rotaries since the early 90's without any issues. I have an Old Forge Tools (p/n 2537) pilot bearing puller made in the good old USA. I think that Old Forge went out of business but there are other companies like OTC that sell these pullers. Only thing is that I have to put two sockets under the "U" to extend the pull length. Photo of similar puller is shown below:

 

had the grease trick work once for me and another time it didn't work so I used they puller and the bearing separated because I used a rented worn OEM puller from autozone so I had to get comfortable laying under the car with a pick and root through grease from the failed grease trick to make sure I got all of the needle bearings out, took a 5 minute nap under the car and continued on to clean the rest of the grease out. I don't recommend renting the puller, if you plan on doing this more than once, just buy the puller