1996 2.7L 5-speed.

Is there a way I can make a good guess which one of these is bad before I drop the tranny?

I have a bearing noise - tapping, clacking - whatever you want to call it - that is present while driving and sitting in neutral, but it goes away when the clutch is pressed.

Obviously the Input Shaft Bearing is a much bigger deal, so I'd like to know whether I need to just do a clutch and new TOB, or to have a used tranny waiting to put in if it winds up being the Input Shaft Bearing.

Thanks-

 

I had a bad input shaft bearing on mine. There was a whining noise present I all gears, with the clutch out. Does yours only make noise when sitting still or can you still hear it while driving?

 

Makes noise while sitting still or driving. Noise stops when I press the clutch.

 

I'm just speaking from experience. I figured mine out by trying the clutch replacement. I replaced it, and the noise didn't go away. I waited another 30k miles then did the cutch again and had my transmission rebuilt. They'll go a while making noise. Mine was noisy when I bought it at 100k, and I didn't get the trans rebuilt until 165k.

 

I had the same pattern of noise. When I did my clutch job, I found a bad pilot bearing.

 

A bad pilot bearing is more likely to make noise when the clutch is depressed. River man, Is your truck making he noise with the clutch in or out?

 

It makes the noise when the clutch pedal is NOT pressed - meaning when the clutch is engaged. If you press the pedal, the noise stops.

It seems like this means it's most likely the input shaft bearing.

But, this truck is a rescue that I'm restoring - when I got it about 1000 miles ago, it had been sitting on a riverbank for 2+ years. Among a ton of other problems, the clutch was rusted onto the flywheel to where it would not release. I started it in first gear and drove around in circles popping the clutch pedal until it broke loose. Although the noise didn't start for 1000 miles after that, I'm thinking that either that rust or the process of breaking it loose might have damaged the clutch, and maybe I'm hearing a loose spring rattling or something. It sounds a lot like this video:


I have a new clutch kit here, and am just waiting for a chance to get it on my buddy's lift to drop the tranny. Hopefully there will be obvious clutch damage and not too much play in the input shaft - and the clutch kit will fix it.

If not, I'll be back for some advice on how to split the cases to replace the input shaft bearing. Never been inside a tranny before, but there's a first time for everything...

 

We'll that changes a lot of things. Probably would have put that inthe original post. I'd suspect some worn bearings associated with the clutch. Change it and see. Hopefully there wasn't any/much water intrusion in the trans. Did you change the driveline fluids when you "rescued" it?

 

Yep, gave it all new fluids right away. Didn't appear to be any water in the transmission, so here's hoping it's just the clutch.