I don't have room in my garage to drop the transmission, so it went to a shop for a new clutch. For the last 11k miles I've had a varying clutch engagement point, and an off-throttle vibration above 45mph that I've been chasing with u-joints. The rattle through the clutch also changes depending on how I release the clutch. I figured I'd started to spin the hub a bit, but the installer called me today and said the pilot bearing had failed long ago, and the input shaft had a fair amount of galling on it. When I stopped by the shop to look at the parts, there was a definite rough spot on the side of the input shaft well aft of the front cover, and there was scoring in the front cover. The pilot bearing had become one with the flywheel, and the throwout bearing was a mile short of death.

There is no deformity on the splines or the shaft nose, and the shop is working on cleaning up the galling on the shaft. Is this a viable solution, or am I better off having them split the case and install a new input shaft?

And for those questioning, it's a Valair Kevlar/Ceramic clutch and associated parts that failed, after 88k miles. The new clutch is a Southbend OKHD with the upgraded flywheel bearing.

 

Am not sure what the upgraded pilot bearing is specifically. If it's a sealed bearing, it will have its own inner race to run on, and therefore will be more tolerant of an input shaft that may not be 100% smooth on the pilot surface.

 

The Southbend upgrade is a sealed bearing design, and significantly larger in diameter as well.

I decided that with the most expensive part of this deal being labor, that it was better to just do the work now than to hope it lasted and then start over with more carnage later on. I really hope this thing makes it another 4 years!