I had some problems with the engine side of the bellhousing being true which led me to slap it back down on my mill to straighten things out. But first I wanted to have a look at the pilot shaft surface for any hints of what's going on.
Pilot shaft mug shot:
This isn't so bad as I thought. There is obviously some premature wear going on here considering that I haven't gone 150 miles since firing up my new engine. The color shows us that there is too much heat and since faded from the engine side back on the bearing surface I came to believe that it was a surface alignment problem and NOT an alignment problem with the holes around the bellhousing. I KNOW those holes are correctly placed in the CAD program so the only variable left is the welding of the bellhousing when I removed a section from it to shorten it. I went through great pains to get the housing milled super flat and the sections braced properly before welding them together. Time to check for variances in the surface of the engine side of the bellhousing. For reference here is the pilot shaft of the newer transmission that I just picked up. The rust is a non-issue as I easily removed that from the surface before assembly. The shaft is shiny and uniform without signs of discoloration from heat.
