I'm having a new cluth & drive shaft installed. Stoped by the
shop and the mechanic was at the grinding wheel. The owner
came over to me and said the release bearings were stuck
inplace and they were having to chip the bearing houseing out a little
at a time. But later I was thinking why would you need a grinder?
Unless they were trying to grind down the housing of the
new bearings to make them fit in place without cleaning
out all the other bearing housing.
I bought the upgrade cluth from Mazdatrix and they sent
a Mazd release bearing. It should have fit without a mod.

Has anyone had this problem when replacing a clutch, and
what kind of problems might this cuase later?

 

Sure they were speaking of the release bearing? Could they have been referring to the pilot bearing? If the pilot bearing, hope they don't screw up the eccentric shaft when grinding it out. Release bearing moves via clutch fork, and rides on the front trans casing. Never seen a problem with that.

 

They probably were talking about the pilot bearing and
I was thinking of release bearing. So if they screw up the
eccentic shaft how will it effect the performance?

 

The pilot bearing keeps the mainshaft from the trans secure, in a horizontal plane, with support at the front. If they were to grind into the eccentric shaft, the pilot bearing may not be secured in place. They may open the "hole" too much. It won't hurt performance, but hopefully the bearing will stay in place.
I wouldn't worry about it. If you do a search, you'll find a great number of people grind the pilot bearing out and experience no problems.

 

turbonut u are now the official tranmission guy.....

 

Just got it out og the shop & it's grinding a little into 1nd gear and a little more into reverse. Can't get it into reverse
unless you want a good grind. Didn't do this before the new clutch.
What could be the difference?

 

I'm curious.. you mentioned in your first post that the mechanic was AT the grinding wheel.. implying that he had taken a part over to his workbench and used a grinder there... Was this the case? if so, then it could not have been the pilot bearing he was grinding out.. if you were to remove the pilot bearing with a grinder, it would have to be done with a small hand held grinder underneath the car, since the shaft the bearing is in is still attached to the motor...

 

Obviously the pressure plate is not releasing the disc fully. Check free play and hydraulics.
Good point Chris brought up....Wonder what he was doing AT the grinder. That went right over my head!