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Engine/Transmission (1994 - 1998) Hard shifting 4500. Input shaft play. What to do now?

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2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission Need 2nd Generation info.

2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission Steering problems

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Not the usual suspects. Bear with me, kinda long...



Bought the unbombed truck with 140K, PO said a stock clutch was installed by dealer at 138K. I put on the stuff in my sig. Now at 152K with some towing behind it, I find it hard to get in gear after being in neutral, engine running, clutch engaged- had to shift into 3rd or 4th to get 2nd or rev. Being skeptical if a clutch was really installed, I tear it down (as opposed to just throwing a $300 hydraulic system at it to see if it fixes it).



Everything looks excellent clutch wise (Like it was recently installed):

Pilot and throwout in great shape.

Fork and pivots good.

Flywheel- a few heat marks.

Clutch disk- no springs broken/ cracked, rivets good, and you can still see some of the ink marks on the disk, < . 020 runout.

PP- no springs broken, Tines even

Clutch housing- < . 015 bore runout, < . 002 face runout.





The issue- Input shaft of the 4500 moves side to side. Bad thing in a tapered roller bearing situation. I can push the input shaft over and hit the bearing housing snout with it.



What now? Throw a new bearing on the input shaft and see what happens? Machine down the input retainer? Tear down the rear of the transmission and check endplay? I'm at a loss as to the first cost effective thing to do, being new to 4500's, but not trannys in general. Any help/ advice is appreciated.
 
I would pull the top cover and check the blocking rings. My junkyard GM NV4500 had excessive endplay from the bearing retainer plate being bent from a wreck and it still shifted fine. It just rattled loudly at certain rpms. In my opinion NV4500s are not all that difficult to rebuild if you have experience rebuilding manual transmissions and a good shop manual. The later style top cover with the bolt on shifter also improves shifting if you can find one.
 
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