1G "Mushroomed" Input shaft?

[90REkTSi]

On my 90 AWD i just pulled out the short block and the tranny out at the same time.(Completely stock internals) I just removed the tranny from the engine, as i was inspecting the tranny i found out that the shaft that the T/O bearing sits on was ground down or MUSHROOMED...Not where the splines are on the input shaft but the solid piece where the TO bearing slides on. Meaning i couldn't pull off my old TO bearing without grinding it down. I also found small surface scrapes on the inner bell housing caused by the pressure plate rubbing against it. When i looked at the clutch disc, the hub seems it was grinding against the tranny and looks like the disc would've only lasted a few more months. The Sprung part of the disc looks like it would've lost a spring or completely seperated from the friction assembly if i would've kept driving the car. The pressure plate seemed to be torqued down properly along with the flywheel. Does this seem like clearance issues of some sort? Improper clutch assembly? I am the 3rd owner of this car and this was the 2nd engine in this vehicle...I'm also assuming the technicians who installed the last engine took lots of short cuts, missing 1 engine to tranny bolt, 1 of the 3 that where still on there was loose enough that when you depress the clutch the tranny would seperate from the engine. Has anyone else experienced this type of problem? See any problems reusing a perfectly fine tranny? Thanks guys!

 

[v8s_are_slow]

the mushroom effect is from the tranny separating from the engine. the shaft is spinning at an angle and a lot of pressure is applied to it. if it's not too bad, you could "possibly" get away with it for awhile by grinding it down a small bit but i'd for dang sure make sure it's all smoothed out....and you'd be t rying it at your own risk. but if ya don't have another tranny on hand and have to have something i'd say go for it. make sure the dowel pins are in as well.

 

[90REkTSi]

the mushroom effect is from the tranny separating from the engine. the shaft is spinning at an angle and a lot of pressure is applied to it. if it's not too bad, you could "possibly" get away with it for awhile by grinding it down a small bit but i'd for dang sure make sure it's all smoothed out....and you'd be t rying it at your own risk. but if ya don't have another tranny on hand and have to have something i'd say go for it. make sure the dowel pins are in as well.

Thats exactly what happened! When i first bought the car the clutch would't disengage. The previous owner said he changed the clutch master cylinder and was about to change the slave cylinder but decided to get rid of the car. So before driving the car i wanted to bleed the hydraulic system, had someone press on the clutch pedal while i was under the car. To my surprise the engine was seperating from the transmission! WTF The front engine-transmission bolt was literally hanging on by a thread! So i tightened it up and problem solved. I dont know how long it was driven like this, but it doesnt look too bad...Looks like i'll be able to drive on this tranny. I ground the shaft flush so it looking pretty good. Thanks for helping me figure this one out! Sounds like that it might have happened to you before?