I finally discovered the source of my vibration, seems that the pilot bearing had been destroyed. I'm having some problems getting the old one out, anybody have any good suggestions?

 

I took a chizel and sledge hammer and lightly hit the chizel on the pilot bearing (if it is the brass one) until it broke.

Scott

 

I would use grease and dowl rod or brass punch. Find a punch that will just inside the bearing, fill inside of bearing with grease, use the punch to push the in (use a hammer). The grease does not compress, so when you force it in, it pushes the bearing out. It is slow but it works.

 

tried the grease trick, but it didn't work, with what was left of the bearing i couldn't get a good enough seal for it to work.

 

i think they make a tool to remove it. check with local auto parts store

 

Was it a roller bearing or the brass bushing? Just curious because I have heard of problems with the roller bearings.

 

roller bearing, not the bushing

 

I used a slide hammer with a arm on the end of it... 2 hits and it was out.... putting it in was another story....

 

Yes if you pry in one side of the outer race, collapsing it inward, it should then come out with needle nose, prying, etc.

 

I find it interesting that you never hear about pilot bushings going bad, but you do hear about pilot bearings going bad and yet people seem to think that the bearing is superior.

 

There is a tool specifically made for pulling it. It is kinda like a steering wheel puller with a bridge. You just tighten a polt with a ratchet and it pops right out. It works wonders.
The slide hammer style and the grease did not work for me either.

Is your input shaft damaged? I just replaced mine a few months ago for the same reason. I have been trying to let everyone know about the roller type and this instance is the reason why.

Good luck

 

I drilled out one side of it then put a small screwdriver in there and pryed it out.

 

hey actually soap works really good. me and a friend were havin trouble getting the pilot bearing out of his stang. we tried packing it with grease like one guy mentioned above with no luck but we then packed it up with soap and got a socket that fit right into bearing and hit it and the soap has no where to go and it popped the bearing right out with little effort.

 

i found the chisel method to work , now she goes back together

 

Bravo! What a great design GM!

With that said, once you get that removed be sure to inspect the input shaft as stated before. Mine looked fine when I did mine due to roller bearing failure but once it was back together I experienced a leak. So I didnt know if it was the rear main seal that I replaced or the tranny. Well I put trace dye in the tranny and ran it for 2 days. But when I put the black light under neath, there was nothing glowing. Here it was the rear main, but I decided to put the black light on the clutch disc and here there was trace amounts of tranny oil showing up with the dye. Here my input shaft seal was going, and the rear main as well. So you may need to replace the input shaft seal, if not the input shaft also. As for the roller bearing, DO NOT BUY ANOTHER! here is the part number for the brass pilot bushing used in the Corvette engines.
GM# 14061685
Hope you have better luck than I did this summer with my tranny!