strikland

So my car starts to sound like there's a cricket living in the engine, and form other symptoms I'm thinking it's the clutch release bearing. I search around here and it confirms my suspicions. So if I'm going to be ripping into this to replace a bearing, should I be thourough and plan on replacing the clutch and all while I'm in there? I have no idea how much wear is on the clutch, it seems to be fine, but... Common sense tells me to shell out the $$$ and do it right, but I'm a cheapass...

Then, If I'm doing a clutch, mazdatrix recommends a pilot bearing removal tool, which I don't want to pay $100+ for. Will the loan-a-tool puller from advance auto work, or does it require a special one?

YearsOfDecay

the loan a puller probably won't work, jaws aint small enough...

my advice.. (from a guy who "acquired" the pilot bearing puller) is to replace your clutch if your car has high miles and you don't know how long its been in there... will save you the pain in the *** of pulling the tranny again later..

Order you stuff, when you get your new pilot bearing, take it to autozone or wherever, and see if they have a puller that will fit inside... bvut the one i rented from them a few years ago definately will not fit inside the pilot bearing...

I think i saw one at harbor freight that will work. Its gotta have tiny little jaws that you can stick down inside the pilot bearing and then expad to catch the lip.

AcidShock

iTrader: (49)

You can either take Decay's advice and get one from Harbour Freight which works well or do what I did. I got the one from AutoZone and ground it down to make it fit inside and have enough grip to yank the thing out. One thing I did learn if you do the latter is make sure it is tightened securely. Otherwise, you will pull out the inner race and still leave the bearing sleeve in there. Boy, was that a bitch getting out.

strikland

whenever I work on my cor, it always ends up involving a rubber mallet and a Dremel...and that was just to change a turn signal bulb (which, of course, didn't fix anything), but that's another story...

Is this the puller you're talking about?

Pilot Bearing Puller

After driving to lunch, I'm not even sure it's the release bearing anymore. It chirps while the car's coasting in neutral sometimes, and I'm thinking (hoping) that it may just be something loose down by the clutch pedal.

Here's another symptom- The clutch pedal sticks on it's way up, but not at the floor, but after the clutch has engaged. I just replaced the clutch slave cylinder, so I know it's not that... I just need to find time to rip into it and see what's going on.

Thanks for the input guys :thumbup: