Has any one had the input shaft bearing go bad? I've got a constant rattle coming from the bell housing. What would a failure of this bearing sound like?

 

Aod or T5?

 

T-5, got it From D&D awhile back brand new. The car has been sitting a lot over the last 10 years, It probably doesn't have over 10,000 miles on it. Which makes me doubt it would be the bearing but not really sure.

 

Sounds more like the throwout bearing, does it rattle while idling in neutral, in gear etc?

 

Just like 90mustangLX stated is the noise when you are on or off the clutch at idle and also when cruising? by the way the input shaft is very easy on the T5 if that is the repair and I have the info on how to do it if needed.

 

On a Lotus I had back in the day, the input shaft bearing was problematic every 20k or so. After the second failure I went to a machine shop where an old timer suggested an oil-lite bronze bushing instead of a cage of needle bearings. He made one, I tapped it in the flywheel, and I never had any more issues.
Just a thought.

 

It rattles all the time, clutch in or out, in gear while driving. I've also considered I might have the clutch adjusted wrong allowing the throw out bearing to be constantly touching the pressure plate. Is that possible ? I'm going to crawl under and take a closer look tomorrow.

 

Backed out the adjustment on my cable, and I can get the noise to stop by working the pedal. The noise comes back as I rev the engine. It is affected by RPM also, the higher the revs the faster the rattle is. If it was the throw out bearing wouldn't it stop when the clutch is engaged? Pressing in on the clutch actually makes the noise return.

 

Typically yes because it puts pressure against the throw out bearing. Unless its really far gone but you usually would have had some indication prior.

Another thought, some of the S197's would have a rattle from the bell housing area that wound up being the inspection plate/separator plate (lower front of bell housing) in several cases. They loosened the bottom bolts and stuck a piece of two sided tape between the plate and bell housing and that fixed it. I don't remember if the noise was affected by the clutch action though. Don't know if that was ever an issue on the Fox.

 

Replace the TOB and while you have it down, put a new pilot bearing in there too.

 

Just checked the bolts on the spacer they are good and tight, guess I'm going to have to pull the trans and bell housing, I sprayed some white lithium grease on the bearing retainer and the throw out bearing. This seemed to quietness the rattle a little but eventually came back to full volume. Thanks for the advice, I'll post what I found whenever I can get it out.