Possible causes....?

[oleyellar]

Jimi G.
I have a TKO (1998 Vintage) behind a 460 in a Superformance. Lakewood shield, 5/8" plate spacer and Mcleod hydraulic t/o bearing.
Everything has been working fine, had some engine trouble and pulled everything out. While pulling the t/o bearing, to reseal, I noticed it was difficult to slide off the input shaft bearing retainer. After I got it off an cleaned up the shaft, I found the bearing retainer shaft was cracked about 230 dergrees.. It was about to break off, just forward of the t/o beraring... I removed it and there is evidence that the input shaft had rubbed the inside of the retainer housing. I checked alignment before install, it was .004" and Lakewood's spec was no more than .005".
Is this from missalignment or sloppy pilot bearing? I had a new needle bearing pilot bearing.... I'm just wondering where to look before I put all this back together. I don't want the same thing to happen again.....
Thanks
John

[Jimi G]

John,

The retainer could of been broken by a couple of things, one the pilot bearing as you mentioned, and the other could be a misaligned bellhousing. Generally the bellhousing not being aligned will cause other problems such as the transmission grinding or hard to go into 3rd and 4th gear. If you didn't have any other problems then that would lead me to believe that it was the pilot bearing. While it is out you need to check the input to see how loose it is in the transmission, you will want to move it up and down if there is alot of play the pilot would of caused the transmission to become to loose and will need to be reshimed.

Jimi G.

[oleyellar]

Thanks Jimi,
I will replace the pilot bearing and recheck the alignment. The weird thing is everything worked perfectly before I took it apart, aside from the engine issue.

[jshel1]

Jimi,

Sent you a PM.

[Jimi G]

Originally Posted by jshel1

Jimi,

Sent you a PM.

Replied to your pm.