Okay, I'm currently working on installing a 5spd in another members car, and came across an invaluable tool today... a slide hammer... on the automatic, there is a bushing in the crankshaft that you must remove to intstall the pilot bushing. Try as I might, I could not get that bushing out of my old car when I did the swap, but all I used was a couple different pilot bushing pullers. Back then, Thomas (sx7r) recommended I try a tool called a slide hammer, but I couldn't find one for rent anywhere, and the cheapest one was $100+. After a whole day of messing with mine, I finally said screw it and put it all back together, it ran fine for 5 months until it was totaled. Today with the slide hammer, which they had at a tool rental place close to where we are doing the install, I had that damn bushing out in less than 5 minutes. Deffinetly try and find one before attempting a swap! Looks kinda like this...

 

i tried w/ that and it didnt' pull out...so i gave up...car ran fine...

 

fun tool hehe. we use that to pull oil seals

 

what does tha tbushing do? I swapped my tranny but never did this. Neither did i figure out where it goes, lol.

 

The bushing supports the input shaft. I never got mine installed, and the car ran just fine until it was totaled, including time on the track, but I figure since I'm doing the conversion on a friends car now, I might as well do it right. I also figured the bushing wouldn't be there if it wasn't really needed, so I installed it.

 

It supports the main input shaft of the tranny. Long term, it should be there.

 

I don't wanna sound retarded since I've rebuilt a tranny myself, but what is the main input shaft? I still cant figure out where this bushing would go. Anyone have a picture?

 

If you look straight at the engine crank, there is a recessed hole in the center of it, the pilot bushing goes in there... the shaft that comes out of the tranny and goes into the clutch, it is supported on the end by the pilot bushing. On autos, there is a spacer in the end of the crank that does not allow you to put the pilot bushing in, so you must remove it. Does that help?

 

You're probably right, but it is much less important with a transversely mounted engine/transmission setup. The short main input shaft is inherently much more stable than the longer shafts of fore-and-aft mounted engine/transmissions. At least that's what a local transmission guy told me. Makes sense to me, since the bending stiffness of a cantilever beam is proportional to the length cubed.

I'm counting on him being right, since I didn't use the pilot bushing when I converted to 5-speed.

 

I'll tell you this. When I had my tranny out(of the 3-4 times)I checked that bushing w/ the new one I was gonna put in. It just so happens that the aligment tool fit perfectly w/ some "drag" to get it out(suction from fit etc) Now when I compared it to the new bearing, it was for all relative purposes the same. So although I WOULDN'T have left out that bushing, at the same time, I also wouldn't worry to much either.

 

didn't swap the bearings... 30-40,000 miles and adding daily.