grinding tranny + metal shards = ?
 

Recently it was becoming more difficult to shift into first and finally it resulted in not being able to shift in to any gear. When I was able to shift in to first, or any gear for that matter, it grinded badly.

Right before I took the transmission out, I inspected the slave cylinder and it seems to be working fine. Even replaced it with another used one that I know was working, that didn't fix this problem. I did notice however, that when the clutch pedal was depressed, there was a grinding sound coming from the front of the transmission. (Yes, bled the system.)

I then proceeded to take out the transmission and found this where the input shaft from the transmission goes in through the pressure plate/clutch.

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/103/1051216.jpg

Yeah, no clue where these pieces came from. Took off the pressure plate/clutch and everything appears to be fine.

So that's where I'm at. Pilot bearing seems to be okay. Not noisy, moves nicely.

Any help appreciated. Thanks!

looks like a dead pilot bearing.

Really? Maybe I have my parts mixed up for some reason, the pilot bearing is the part that slides on the input shaft on the transmission, correct?

The pilot bearing is the part that goes in the engine which the input shaft rides on... Your talking about the throw out bearing located on the fork of the transmission.

the pilot bearing rests inside the rear of the eccentric shaft behind a small grease seal. the tip of the input shaft rides inside the bearing.

Get a puller to get that pilot bearing sleeve out of there, it's a pain. Installing a new one is pretty easy.