i took off my main pulley and e-shaft bolt to get them powdercoated and to install an oil pellet, and i forgot to depress the clutch! how do you check to see if the needle bearing fell out of alignment, and if it did, how do i fix it? i havnt put the bolt back in yet, so nothing is damaged yet.

 

Check the endplay...

Here is a writeup from Mazdatrix.

If you think you have dropped the bearing, you are welcome to try anything you want to get it back up in place, but we strongly suggest it will be faster to just bite the bullet, and pull the front cover off.
If you think your engine may already have the bearing down, and the engine has been run, first check to see if you have ANY end float. This is the amount the eccentric / pulley / flywheel will move front to back. Spec is .0015" to .0028" - not much at all, but some. If you have absolutely NO float, you have a problem.

All of the damage CAN be repaired with the engine in the car, and the front cover off. The front gear can even be replaced (just DO NOT rotate the eccentric AT ALL while the gear is out.

 

damn, thats what i was afraid of

does anyone have any pics or diagrams of the bearing and where it goes?