Centrifugal force moves the fingers out as the engine rpm goes up - helping further clamp down the pressure plate. Those fingers shouldn't be riding on the throwout bearing but can if they are damaged, the pressure plate is warped (from heat usually) or the fork is damaged, not installed correctly.

On the input shaft bearing, in 4th gear it's 1:1. The input and output shafts are locked so you shouldn't have any bearing noise from the input shaft then.

 

Interesting thoughts. I'm thinking I'll just drop the whole tranny and replace clutch etc. And while it's out rebuild the tranny, (currently looking at cobra rebuild kit) wouldn't hurt. In terms of 4th being 1:1 wouldn't the input shaft still be rotating ? Or are you saying that there would be less resistance therefore less noise.

 

The input shaft and output shaft rotate, yes, at the same speed. There are bearings between the two so they wouldn't be making any noise then.

Sorry I wasn't clear. Yes, the front input shaft bearing can still make noise.

 

So long delay, but I have since dropped the tranny, transfer case and removed / inspected flywheel. First thing I discovered was the the pilot bearing bushing and needle bearing was quite literally floating on the input shaft, Ie not pressed into crankshaft. I also opened up the tranny and poked around and could not see any visible damage. So, due to time and space constraints I replaced only the input shaft bearing and countershaft bearing, as well as a new Sachs clutch kit with new pilot bearing and bushing, lone behold NOISE IS GONE!

Additionally, the 2 of the pressure plate bolts quite literally came off by hand.

P.S. the input shaft bearing seemed fine, worn but fine. The countershaft bearing on the other hand seemed extremely worn.




Pilot bushing - bearing