Does anyone know what the purpose of the small shaft seal is?
When fooling around putting the transmission in I noticed a smalll sliver of rubber stuck in the grease on the pilot bearing. I suspect it came from the shaft seal. I probably dinged the seal putting the trans up the first time. The face of the seal looked, and felt OK. It's hard to say where the rubber actually came from.

I no longer have the pilot bearing tool and the trans is mounted.

Should I endure the pain and replace the seal at this point or not?

Is it a dust or oil seal?

Chuck

 

The seal's purpose is to keep the grease in the pilot bearing and keep dirt out.

The centriugal force placed on the bearing while it rotates will tend to force grease out of the bearing if the seal is not on place. Running a dry bearing will eventually ruin it and possibly eat up the end of the transmission input shaft. a shot bearing will also allow the input shaft to "wallow" around and place extreme stress on the big shaft bearing in the trans.

If it were my car I would remove the trans and replace the seal. You do not need the bearing removal tool to work on the seal. It can be remooved with a small screwdriver and replaced with hand pressure applied to a socket that matches the O.D. of the seal.

 

Well, like I said the face of the seal looks fine...perhaps it was just a little flashing or something, didn't notice it till I double checked the clutch disk and saw it sitting in some grease. Also, how much grease should be up there? Before I put the new bearing in I put some high temp on it and left what was in the hole in place. Thanks.

 

The bearing should be packed with grease.. It's a tricky concept to describe, but basically you put a dallop of grease in one hand, and with a scraping motion, force the bearing through the grease to push the grease up into the bearing. repeat until the entire bearing is packed with grease all around.. You should see grease start forcing it's way out of the needle bearings inside.

If the seal lets go, grease gets flung onto the pressure plate and clutch disk, and you'll ruin the clutch disk. From what you described, I'd probably leave it alone, but you run the risk of having to undo all of your work to replace the clutch disk, if it does let go.

PaulC

 

Anyone can further reduce wear on the pilot bearing as well as the throwout bearing by getting into the habit of not keeping the clutch pedal depressed for extended periods of time.

This means you need to shift into neutral and let the clutch out when practical to do so, like while stuck in traffic or waiting at a stop light. Idiling in neutral will allow the input shaft to rotate at the same speed as the flywheel and therefore the relative movement between the shaft and flywheel will be zero. The pilot bearing will not be turning in this situation. This habit will also relieve the pressure on the throwout bearing and greatly extend its life expectancy.

 

hmm, well now I wonder if I packed it well enough. I just put some on my finger and spun the bearing around a few times then coated the outside of it. If that's not enough my only solution would be to just put more on my finger cuz I can't get it back out w/o the tool. Damnit, now I'm less worried about the seal and more-so on the bearing...damn this list...damn. Ignorance is a beautiful thing.

 

what kind of grease did you guy's use?

 

Not much to input, but coming from someone who had a pilot bearing eat the end of his input shaft, it sucks.

If it happens, expect a lot of grinding noises and not being able to shift gears. Umm.. get out the chisel as well when you replace a chewed up one .. lol

Well.. I guess it wasnt that funny when it happened to me

 

wow, kinda surprised to see this thread come back. I've had that clutch in for months and months now.

 

If it was me, I would deffinetly make sure their is plenty of grease in the pilot bearing. As I type this, my car is on jackstands with my trans stuck on my engine. I have run about 3000 miles on the engine and pilot bearing and 1 day I was driving slowly, came to a stop, then when I tried to disengage the clutch, it wouldnt go in gear. If any one has any ideas on how to remove my transmission I will try anything. Iam currently pulling on my trans with a come along chained to my rear end and hammering the hell out of the bell housing with a 2x4 and a 5# hammer, with NO luck! I think when I installed the pilot bearing I did the light finger grease technique, which obviously doesnt work. I hope this helps?