i think i need to change my pilot bearing

[hachiroku]

ever since i first bought my S13, i've been hearing a whining noise everytime i'm in the first 3 gears. it's really noisy in the first 2 gears, quieter in 3rd gear and pretty silent when i'm in 4th-5th gear.

the owner said that the clutch was recently replaced, but i think that whoever changed the clutch was too lazy to change the pilot bearing and that's where i'm getting the whining noise. i never had anyone that was able to confirm it was the pilot bearing and i can only suspect because i don't know of any other bearing that would make such a noise in my conditions. can anyone tell me if my speculation is correct?

i know the steps to changing this bearing is just like changing the clutch, but can someone tell me if there is anything i need to lookout for when changing the clutch on an S13 because i've never dealt with S13 clutches before, so i don't know what else to expect to have to do other than removing starter, tranny, driveshaft, clutch slave cylinder (?). i know how to remove a pilot bearing, but when replacing a pilot bearing, what do i use to tap it into the engine? and how far do i tap it in?

thanksgiving weekend is coming up and this will be the only time i will be free to do such a task, so i need to know everything i need to do asap so i can get this done without spending more than the weekend.  i'm taking the car home to oakland from san jose and will need to come back to san jose at the end of the weekend (50+ miles apart).

[mrmephistopheles]

First, make sure you have ALL tools required to do this. Changing the clutch, throwout bearing and pilot bushing are easy. The hardest part is getting the tranny out (which is done most easily by having long extensions, wobble sockets and having a tranny jack at your disposal)  A real time saver is a pneumatic gun with impact sockets, but it's not necessary.

Now, as far as diagnosing whether or not it's your pilot bushing, when MY bushing was shot, I'd get a nice loud whirring sound when pressing my clutch pedal all the way in.
I'd recommend having a throwout bearing ready to go in as well, as they're not too expensive, and well worth it to save some future headache.

Make sure you have a pilot bushing puller, or any other good tool you can use to get it out. It'll be wedged in there pretty well. When you got to put it in, it's easiest to have the flywheel off (this applies to removal as well). Line it up, and find a socket and extension, making sure the socket's outer diameter closely matches the bushing's. Tap it in with a hammer, making sure it goes in straight. You basically tap it in until it stops, (it'll leave a few mm of gap between the outer edge of the hole and the bushing). Make sure you lube up the end of your tranny input shaft (not alot, and bearing grease is fine) because this will be rotating inside that copper bushing, and you don't want alot of friction there (plus it'll ease the reinstallation of the tranny).

Have you ever done work like this to your car before now?

[hachiroku]

my car gets the whirring/whining sound when it is driving or when i'm revving

i hear it through all the gears except 5th.  1st-2nd gear is pretty loud, past 3000 rpm the pitch gets higher.  3rd gear is not as loud, but can still be heard pretty well.  4th gear it gets more silent.  5th gear you really don't hear it, but there is a rocking/rumbling noise.

revving the engine will whine/whirr it regardless of whether or not the clutch pedal pressed in.

when i let off the gas and coast in gear, it will whine/whirr all the way down to about 1000-1500rpm before it goes away. coasting while in gear on a cold engine seems to be louder than when it is hot.  i think it sounds like a bus engine when they coast and let off the gas.  if i put it in neutral and coast, it will go away as soon as the rpms could drop.

i can't say whether or not it whines/whirrs when the clutch pedal is pressed in, but when the engine was cold, there was a very very silent whine, you really can't hear it unless you actually tried to listen for it.

now is that the symptoms of a bad pilot bearing?  i am trying to troubleshoot this by myself because most of my friends don't know cars enough to know what to listen for...i have a friend close to home who knows about as much as i do....he thinks it's the pilot bearing too, but we never actually tried to figure out if it was the pilot bearing.

i was going to replace pilot and throwout if i was doing this task because i really don't know what the last person that changed the clutch did when they changed it.

i think my valve springs also need tightening, but i don't think this would be related to whining/whirring sounds while driving would it??

i have a pilot bearing puller and tranny adapter for floor jack, and another floor jack etc. etc. to do the task.  i just wasn't sure how much i would have to tap the pilot bearing in because the last time and only time i did a clutch job, i wasn't there to do the pilot bearing, so i wasn't sure if it should be tapped all the way in or just tapped in close enough...

i've never done this kind of job on any car similar to mine so i wasn't sure if there were any 'hidden' things i need to remove before i pulled the tranny and changed the bearing.  i've done this job on another car though and the write-ups are pretty much the same.

[hachiroku]

...bump...

please reply asap, i only have til wednesday to figure out what's wrong so i can make a decision on how to approach this problem.