After reading through search results to no avail I figured I'd better post this. I have an intermittent noise at idle that sounds like a bearing of some sort that's dry. This is an '83 truck with a 22r and 5 speed transmission. The truck has 189k and the engine was rebuilt less than 10k ago. Pushing the clutch in/out or moving the shifter around makes no difference to the noise. I was able to get the hood open quickly enough once and it sounds like the noise is somewhere around the front of the engine around the water pump. There are no leaks that I can find. I did notice that turning on the headlights drops the RPMs but I figure that's just a slightly degraded alternator and not related.

Any thoughts as to where to look? What starts making noises like that before it fails?

 

Well, I think I now know what it is. I can't get the transmission in any gear. I had to pull with all my might to get it into second gear just to get it home.

It never has kicked out of gear.

On edit, after letting it sit for a while I was able to shift gears easily when it was turned off. I turned it on and was able to get it into gear no problem. I didn't drive it but I have no reason to think it wouldn't.

I think I'll try the shifter seat replacement, change the fluid and look at the clutch slave cylinder.