Ball bearings falling out

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Early a body

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65 dart just did a swap from 318 to 340. Manual transmission. Has a loud weird noise and the engine slowed down like the clutch was grabbing when i depress the clutch pedal. So I take out the trans to see whats up and i have 5-6 small ball bearings on the groundThe clutch absolutly grabbed as i can see the clutch mess on the flywheenl and pressure plate. I took apart the thow out bearing to see if they came from there and they are smaller than the thow our bearings ball bearings. The clutch i used in a no name brand from auto zone. i was trying to save a buck. It is a diaphram style 10.5 inch clutch. Does the pressure plate or clutch have ball bearings? I took the bearing retainer of the trans and there is no place for these small bearings to slip past the front bearing- Any thoughts on this one?
 
Got pictures?
Pilot bearing/bushing should be a bush or needles.

Any chance you parked over some old bearings? LOL
 
^^ do you have a pilot bearing that has rollers or ball bearings in it?
 
Here are some photos.
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In one of the photos I took the bearing and stuck in to the thow out bearing to show its smaler than the throw out bearing bearing
 
Your throw out bearing seems like it's missing balls though?

That's an oddity. I can't think of where those would have come from. I'd take the TO bearing apart some more to see if there's somehow a second set of balls..
 
Your throw out bearing seems like it's missing balls though?

That's an oddity. I can't think of where those would have come from. I'd take the TO bearing apart some more to see if there's somehow a second set of balls..

The throw out bearing had a spacer( best way to describe it) that had 13 slots for the 13 ball bearings. I have never taken a throw out bearing apart before so i dont know if it was uspposed to have more ball bearings. The bearing retainer on the transmission has a small hole on the shaft , that intrestingly enough the ball bearings fit perfectly. Maybe the trans has a bad bearing inside shooting the balls out. i will take the trans cover off tomorrow and see what I got- thanks for your help
 
Don't think there's any balls that small inside the trans. There's roller bearings inside the countershaft, but they're not balls. Same in the input shaft. The thrust bearings are flat spacers. The ball detents in the cover are much larger.

I can't imagine anything could get out of the front bearing retainer. The small hole in the front bearing retainer is just a vent, if we're talking about the same thing.
 
Do you have all 13 balls for the release bearing? Balls worn down in size? Your pic shows 1 ball in the release bearing that looks smaller than the others. Got a micrometer?
 
Where they make the throw out bearings they could have put some small Mexican balls in there. They would definitely be the small ones. My guess is that you bought a defective TOB. made in Mexico.
 
100% there’s no ball bearing that size in the trans I agree with the above post gotta be throwout bearings
 
Check your pressure plate, I know Centerforce was using small ball bearings between the diaphram and the hat to reduce friction and they tended to fall out if the pressure plate went over center or close to it and make the clutch grab like you described. If only a few fell out the levers will be all in and out instead of even all the way around. If all fell out you loose all your clutch adjustment.
 
Do you have all 13 balls for the release bearing? Balls worn down in size? Your pic shows 1 ball in the release bearing that looks smaller than the others. Got a micrometer?

Yeah i have all 13 bearings still in the throw out bearing, not all in the picture. The small bearing is the one i dropped into the throw out bearing to show the difference in the size between the bearings that were falling out and the bearings found in the throw out bearing
 
I took a clooser look at the trans output shaft, it looks pretty scored up, i used another input shaft as an alighning tool and its not as scored as the one in the trans. Also I can pull out on the shaft and a it comes out a little , is that normal

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Small amount of in/out is normal. The scoring on the shaft looks odd, but most shafts are pretty rough in that area anyway.
Got a picture of your pressure plate, especially the fingers? Are they all even?
 
Small amount of in/out is normal. The scoring on the shaft looks odd, but most shafts are pretty rough in that area anyway.
Got a picture of your pressure plate, especially the fingers? Are they all even?

Pressure plate fingers are all even, i am starting to think its the thow out bearing. I am trying to find another used on ei have and pull it apart
 
Pressure plate fingers are all even, i am starting to think its the thow out bearing. I am trying to find another used on ei have and pull it apart

Seems odd since the balls you found are so small compared to the TO bearing. Unless what we see in the picture is a ball retainer/spacer and the balls are actually smaller and some have fallen out. It's definitely possible though!

New TO bearings are about $25 for the cheap ones on summit..
 
Seems odd since the balls you found are so small compared to the TO bearing. Unless what we see in the picture is a ball retainer/spacer and the balls are actually smaller and some have fallen out. It's definitely possible though!

New TO bearings are about $25 for the cheap ones on summit..

yeah i got a new throw out bearing just trying to prevent putting it all back together and it makes the same noise from something else
 
Yeah, I totally understand that. Nothing sucks more than working your butt off to fix something, and then having it remain unfixed.
I'm still racking my brain trying to think of where such a small ball bearing would come from.

You just swapped from 318 to 340 - did you confirm your crank is drilled deep enough for the input shaft? Should be, I would guess.

How's the oil pressure on the 340? Was it recently rebuilt? A bad thrust bearing can cause a loss of oil pressure but could also maybe cause an issue when you press the clutch pedal down. Just spit balling here...
 
Yeah, I totally understand that. Nothing sucks more than working your butt off to fix something, and then having it remain unfixed.
I'm still racking my brain trying to think of where such a small ball bearing would come from.

You just swapped from 318 to 340 - did you confirm your crank is drilled deep enough for the input shaft? Should be, I would guess.

How's the oil pressure on the 340? Was it recently rebuilt? A bad thrust bearing can cause a loss of oil pressure but could also maybe cause an issue when you press the clutch pedal down. Just spit balling here...

I had this same 340 in another car so the crank is drilled deep enough. Oil pressure is good . I took the side cover off the trans no ball bearings in sight so thats good news. All I can think of is it came from the throw out bearing or pressure plate, I am going to replace everything to make sure. Just stright weird
 
I had this same 340 in another car so the crank is drilled deep enough. Oil pressure is good . I took the side cover off the trans no ball bearings in sight so thats good news. All I can think of is it came from the throw out bearing or pressure plate, I am going to replace everything to make sure. Just stright weird

Definitely weird. Any chance you've got an office chair nearby that has casters falling apart? LOL. I've seen it before in a machine shop... people were freaked for most of the day.
 
Figured it out- Son of a *****- i flipped over my harbor fright transmision jack and guess what I found- the same ball bearings in what looks like a bearing to assit with the up and down motion of the jack. And some of the bearings are missing, Whats up with all there jacks?

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