My car was idling funny whenever I pushed in on the clutch. Found out why when I drained my oil. Found a bunch of bearing pieces stuck to the magnetic drain plug!
They are part of the front end plate bearing!
I have never removed the front cover with the engine in the car.
Would I be better off to pull it?

 

depends!! i would only cause the stack of thrust bearings etc on the front its hard to get them to stay in place good while its in the car.

but it is possible if you take the motor mount bolts off and jack up the oil pan bout an inch and a half to get to those 6 oil pan bolts that go into the front cover

 

it's much easier to work with the front bearing stack when the engine has been removed. you will have to measure eshaft endplay. I would pull the motor, it may actually be faster to do so.

 

Just spent about an hour on it and almost have the front cover off. Didn't even have to remove the water pump!
I think I will just use a lot of vaseline to get everything to stay in place when I put it back together.