I am replacing the clutch on my 2002 Sentra GXE QG18DE 1.8L with the RS5F70A 5-speed manual transmission. Just pulled this out this afternoon, and I was a bit surprised to see it had a pilot bushing rather than a pilot bearing, but the snout of the input shaft is a short conical taper rather than a snout per se in the true sense of the word. I gotta say I have done a literal ton of transmissions and clutches and I have never seen a conical tip to an input shaft. What have I missed here? I imagine this is how it is supposed to look, though I found some fragments of the pilot bushing in the bottom of the bell housing. I have not had my clutch kit delivered yet, so I have not seen the new pilot bushing. Does anyone have any learned commentary on this?

 

Certainly someone on this forum has replaced their clutch system, pulled the transmission? So I'm forging ahead unencumbered with knowledge, experience, or guidance anyway. The new clutch system is now installed, transmission still on the garage floor awaiting striking rod seal and boot to arrive in the mail. I soaked the pilot bushing in 30 wt oil a few days and drove it in. Not quite sure how deep into the crank it should go, but drove it flush with the end of the crank as I would with a transmission having a "normal" pilot snout that nestles inside the pilot bushing/bearing. I have done many clutch/transmission jobs in the last 50 years, but only one previous front wheel drive manual trans, and that one had a "normal" pilot snout.
So again I'm not quite sure about this conical tip pilot, and how it is supposed to interact with the pilot bushing, if at all. It does seem there has been more input of this nature on the Maxima forum, so I'll dig around on there for awhile.

 

Solved questions with study of diagrams of the internal mechanics of this transmission. Go figure. Clutch replaced, transmission installed w new striking rod seal and boot, and driving once again.