For anyone who suspects that your pilot bearing might be shot ( lots of noise when the clutch is diesengaged) Why dont you go ahead and check it out

Here's what it looks like when its shot. make sure you guys check it if you have any signs

 

It was so warped/scorched it took about 15 smacks of the pilot bearing puller to get the casing out.

 

How much and how hard to change the pilot bearing. I have noise when clutch disengage. I knew the bearing is bad but don't want to spend too much money and labor just to change the bearing since my stock clutch still good (only 30K miles).

BC

 

you have to drop the transmission, remove the pressure plate and then pull the bearing out with the pilot bearing puller. gonna be almost exactly the same labor charge as putting a new clutch in.

 

Ha ha ha, man mine I bet is alot worst, I always hear the clak clak clak clak at idle. w/e.

 

It literally CAN'T be worse

 

dont forget to put a new pilot bearing seal.

 

Which one in that picture is the bad one??







Shawn

 

lol mine was so much worse than that one. i dont think a single roller pin was intact...crap i only found what was left on about 3 of them.

 

LOL mine was the same was, it took me 2 hours to get it out. It looked like it was fused. So a word to the wise replace the pilot bearing ASAP, on the onset of the crunching, grinding noise when the clutch is pressed in.

 

an engine i pulled once had no rollers left in it.

 

Mine looked like this when it was pulled out. Needless to say, my car wasn't driving at the time. The clutch was shot and I couldn't put the car in gear.

 

I've reused worse than that...wink

 

sikopath yeah my car couldnt go into gear alot of times either. So I decided to just pull the bad boy out and upgrade the clutch/flywheel etc.

But nonetheless, its still a good referance picture pertaining to how to tell if your pilot bearing is shot

 

Looks like the rollers are tying to tell us all something...

 

I think your bearings are trying to tell you that you need more "SEX" in your life.

 

did he possition the rollers like that?.

 

Whoa, just noticed that! What's up with that?

 

lol.... I did.... wait... did I? I've also got another pic for a good idea on what seperating the t/o bearing from the pressure plate looks like. I'll be posting that soon

 

lol its like in the lion king where the leaves spell out sex!

 

Few things on pilot bearings -

Failures are actually pretty uncommon. Most times they fail when someone installs a new one and doesn't install the oil seal that goes with it. The bearing runs dry and chews itself up. A properly installed pilot bearing will probably outlast the motor.

That said, make SURE you install the oil seal along with the bearing, then work a good heavy-duty grease into the pilot bearing. Installing the bearing can be a pain, too - I've damaged bearings and seals by using handmade tools. I bought a pilot bearing installer some time back from a guy on the FC list who was making them - that sucker works awesome. Dunno a good source for one nowadays, though.

If you pull the transmission and the bearing is intact and spins well, I would replace the oil seal, re-lube it, and call it a day. You're more likely to damage the new pilot bearing when installing than have problems with the current one. Clean the old one well with brake cleaner and get all the grit out, re-lube it, and install a new oil seal. You'll be good to go.

Dale

 

Level of difficulty on this anyone?

 

Significant. Requires pulling transmission (heavy and annoyingly bulky).

 

The actual pilot bearing install isn't too bad IF you have the right tools, but getting to it is a lot of grunt work.

The ONLY way to go for pulling the pilot bearing is the Mazda tool. Trust me, I've tried all the other tricks, the Mazda tool will pop that sucker out in no time flat. I've literally spent hours trying to remove one with incorrect tools.

Dale

 

Dale, I've heard the Autozone pilot bearing puller works. Do you consider this to be a good tool, or should I (we) seek the Mazda one?