Zf5 inspection without fully tearing down?

[headhunter38]

Is there a way to inspect a zf5 without disassembling it? I dropped it since it was making lots of noise. It would whine and growl at idle with the clutch pedal released. Sound would go away when clutch pressed in. Now that its out it clearly has a bad clutch release bearing. What's not clear yet is if the internals of the transmission are worn and that some of the noise was coming from inside. Ive already removed one of the pto covers and spent some time trying to move the shafts as much as possible to feel for endplay or movement. I did the same thing with the input shaft and again no discernible movement. Last transmission I had out it was obvious the input shaft bearing was bad as I could move the input shaft axially. I hoping i can get away without tearing down the whole transmission if I dont have to right now. Fluid was extremely clean, even though i had changed it only a few thousand miles ago when I bought the truck, there was no metal particles in it all. Which leads me think there's nothing wrong internally as there would be metal in the fluid right?

 

[IDIBRONCO]

That's the bearing on the input shaft that's making noise. When you push in the clutch pedal, the input shaft stops turning. If it had been the throw out bearing, it would be the opposite: noisy with clutch pushed in, quiet with the pedal released. It needs to come apart. If I'm wrong, someone will correct me shortly.

 

[ROCK HARVEY]

What did the fluid look like? When my bearings were going bad, the fluid was really dark and burnt smelling. There is a magnet, but you have to separate the case halves to examine it.

 

[headhunter38]

That's the bearing on the input shaft that's making noise. When you push in the clutch pedal, the input shaft stops turning. If it had been the throw out bearing, it would be the opposite: noisy with clutch pushed in, quiet with the pedal released. It needs to come apart. If I'm wrong, someone will correct me shortly.

That's what I thought it would be and what I experienced with the previous transmission i worked on. However that previous transmission the input shaft would move axially, this transmission the shaft does not move at all.

 

[headhunter38]

What did the fluid look like? When my bearings were going bad, the fluid was really dark and burnt smelling. There is a magnet, but you have to separate the case halves to examine it.

The fluid was only a few thousand miles old, but it was extremely clean without any trace of metal in it. Even the fluid i drained from it when I first bought truck a few thousand ago wasn't very dirty and didn't have metal in it either

 

[franklin2]

In the neutral, with the clutch released, what did it sound like when you revved the engine a little bit? I am assuming you know all about roll-over noise from a retro fit solid flywheel?