Tranny input shaft bearing DIY. Difficulty?

[wavekayaker]

97 Lagacy Brighton wagon 5 sp. 191,000 miles

 

I am starting to get a growling from my tranny that goes away when the clutch is pressed. I've done some research and think that the input shaft bearing is on it's way out.

 

Has anyone done this themselves? I am assuming that you need to split the tranny case to get it out. I have been unable to find any reference of someone tackling this.

 

My options are doing it myself, taking the tranny out and taking it to a shop, and just replacing the tranny.

 

One question on replacing the tranny. I have a 3.90 final ratio. car-part.com only lists legacys as interchangable. Will any 5MT w/ a 3.90 ratio work? (ie. Impreza) I can't imagine, why they wouldn't, unless the axle spline or something is different.

 

Glad the board is back up and running!!!

 

Thanks

 

Anthony

[bratman18]

Sounds to me like its either the throw out bearing or the bearing in the flywheel. Thats what mine did on my car....push clutch in and the noise stops. They are both a lot easier and cheaper to replace than the input shaft bearing. So hopefully for your sake I'm right! I'm sure someone else will have an opinion as well.

[lostinthe202]

I've got a '96 Legacy Outback (trans as yours) with about the same miles (189K).

 

Mine had a growl with the similar characteristic of going away when I put in the clutch. I changed my clutch along with the throw-out bearing and the noise went away. How it was explained to me is that the bearing is always spinning but when the car is in neutral or it is in gear driving, the bearing is has no load on it and will make noise. Once you push the clutch in, you put a load on it and the bearing gets quiet. So you may just need to do a clutch job.

 

Just thought I'd throw that out there..... sorry....

[EVOthis]

bingo..i also had this noise...turned out to be the release bearing....however your question about the input shaft bearing....i believe someone on here did a write up not to long ago about doing the bearing or the seal...it was great had pictures and all.....i wish i could find it too.....

[XT6 Magic]

Input Bearing Replacement

[wavekayaker]

Thanks for the answers guys!! I've needed a new clutch for the last 70,000 miles or so. I have the new one in the box, I was just waiting to get all of my timing parts together before I took the car off the road for a few days. I figured that the bearing was making noise when loaded, then stopped when the clutch was pushed because the input shaft was no longer turning.

 

The noise will stop anytime the clutch is pushed, even coasting. The sound is much worse on cold mornings.

 

It sounds like I am going to have to just pull it apart and see which bearing is the likely culprit.

 

Thanks for the link XT6. I'm not sure if I'm brave enough for that one! Looking at all those gears makes me a little dizzy!

 

Anthony

[lostinthe202]

For what it's worth, your input bearing may also have slop in it along with the TO bearing being bad, as I believe the case to be with my trans. When I got the engine out, I wiggled the input shaft and got a decent amount of movement. I have no idea what amount is acceptable (I was working without a net on this... aka no service manual) but seems to me it was a fair amount. Check the condition of your pilot bearing, if it's really bad then you know your input shaft bearing was doing more work then it would like to.

 

It was suggested to me, and I believe this to be good advise, that if you're going aftermarket on the parts to buy at least the clips that hold the TO bearing onto the clutch fork from the dealer as the aftermarket clips are sub-par.

 

You should also consider having your flywheel turned if you have the time. This is my daily driver so I really didn't have time to mess around, but I work in a machine shop so I was able to do it myself. If time is a constraint and money is not, you could pickup a used flywheel and have that turned so you're ready to go.

 

Again for what it's worth, this was my first clutch on this car and I chose to go the "pull the engine" route. The only real difficulty I had (aside from the expected rusty exhaust bolts) was in getting the motor back in. I had disconnected the engine mounts from the engine to get it out which worked fine, but on reassembly, I couldn't get things to line up. I had to take the mounts out all together, mate the engine and tranny, then pull the motor/trans up a bit and slip the mounts in. Otherwise, it was all easy if a bit more time consuming than the "pull the trans" route and nice to be on my back under the car the whole time.

 

Good Luck!

 

Will-

 

If you haven't already, be sure to do some searches and check out all the info people have posted about doing the timing stuff, lost of good info there.