If this has been covered in here, Sorry for the post, I couldn't find anything about this with the search function. I've got a 99 dodge ram 1500 5.2l with a manual tranny. I went to change the clutch yesterday and when I got the clutch out, there was a little cylinder that fell out the end of the crankshaft that held the pilot bearing......

This part threw me off because the pilot bearing normally sits in the crank is is normally a PITA to get out. Its got the NV3500 tranny in it and I was wandering if anyone else has seen this piece/part? It almost seemed like it was a spacer of sorts, the end of the crank looked fine and seemed like the same pilot bearing would have gone into section behind this "piece". I did a little measuring and found that the input shaft for the tranny sat pretty damn close to flush with the bellhousing, which meant that the input shaft would not have fit back far enough in to the crank to go into the pilot bearing if it had not had this spacer/piece there. Is this possibly a piece that oly exists for the 3500 and would not be there if I had the 4500 tranny?

I should have taken pics of this thing, but I didn't have time with this being my DD, I can't find any reference of this piece in the haynes manual or anywhere else online, Hope someone can help with this and nice forum.

 

so no one has seen this occurance yet?

 

I stopped up at the local dodge dealer and asked them, a little searching through the computer found that the part is supossed to be detached from the crankshaft. Its is a pilot bearing sleeve, sits inside the flange on the end of the crankshaft.