Trans problem. Need help, suggestions, opinions

[sneitzel]

I have a major problem with my transmission. I dropped it off at the shop to have the clutch etc. replaced. The mechanic called me yesterday and told me he cannot get the old pilot bearing out. He says what is left of it, looks like it has fused to the end of the crank and he cannot get the puller to grip it enough to remove it. His solution is to pull the engine, remove the crank and have it machined. That sounds really extreme to me, I'm thinking there has to be another way to solve this issue.

Has anyone ever come across this before?

I am going to go by tomorrow and look at it as well as take some pictures to post here.

I would appreciate any opinions, ideas or solutions anyone could offer.

Thanks.

[Bananasaboutcars]

Is it a tranny shop or just a regular shop that has it? A tranny specialist might have come across something like this before and have a better solution.
There has to be a better and cheaper way than taking the engine apart.

[sneitzel]

It is at a regular shop.

I had planned to take it to a trans specialty shop for a 2nd opinion but wanted see if anyone had any other ideas before I spent the $$ to have it towed.

Pictures later this afternoon...

[sneitzel]

WHEW!!!!!
So it looks like the problem has been fixed.
Actually, the problem was a combination of things.
A wrong part from O'Reilly, a very inexpensive puller and a mechanic who was a little gunshy about using some force or trying a different tool.

Here's what happened.
It looks like my car had an actual needle/roller type pilot bearing. At some point in time that failed and the inner race and needles were pretty much destroyed leaving only the outer race behind. That left the input shaft free to bounce around wherever it wanted to which I believe was the noise I was hearing.
Now the confusion. O'Reilly gave me a brass type bushing as a replacement. As it turns out it was the wrong part and was way too small. Coincidentally, however, it was almost the perfect size to fit into the outer race left from the previous bearing. There is a small lip on the back side of that race that looked like it was a piece of the old bearing. Too small for the puller to get ahold of, especially since the feet on the tool were very small. With the wrong part being so close to the size of the opening (the wrong busing is about 1/32 too big) I can see where the confusion came from.

I do think, however, if he had a better puller (with larger feet) and if he had been a little more aggressive that outer race would have broken loose and he would have realized the problem.

As it stands now, I got the correct bushing from AutoZone and he is going to get a slide hammer type of puller and remove all of the old bearing.

Problem solved, hopefully....

PS:
My only question now is should I hunt down an actual roller bearing for the car or is the brass bushing ok?

[Jeff_in_Atl]

PS:
My only question now is should I hunt down an actual roller bearing for the car or is the brass bushing ok?

Get a bearing not a bushing. NAPA has them. Also you need a special greese for it. It's a high tack grease. NAPA has that too. It's sticky. It's also red.

[sneitzel]

Get a bearing not a bushing. NAPA has them. Also you need a special greese for it. It's a high tack grease. NAPA has that too. It's sticky. It's also red.

Will do. Thanks.