That was my thought too, and why I asked about the mileage. Hopefully you figure it out either way :-?

Yeah, if you pretty much ruled out the hydraulics there's not much left to play with without pulling the trans out. One other thing I had an issue with was the TOB flange failing and starting to tear/bend. Caused clutch chatter between the lower gears (like 2-3, 3-4). But that's not visible with the trans in place.

*UPDATE*

Got the trans out, input shaft looks good and everything feels fine there. I took the clutch assembly apart and the pressure plate, clutch disc, as well as the throw-out bearing and flywheel all look good, though TO bearing had a lot of gunk and dirt behind it engine side. Looked at the pilot bushing and that seems to be the culprit. The hole almost looks out of shape but more importantly the roller bearings look half worn/missing. I'll be getting a puller which will allow me to further inspect but the plan is to get a solid bushing to replace it with as well as a new TO bearing and put it back together. Very possible I didn't replace this when I dropped the LTI in, engine was rebuilt I think 20k or so prior. Only one I remember replacing was on the TPI engine when I first converted the car to 6spd. Rookie mistake

It's hard to tell, but your transmission may not be concentric to the center of the crankshaft. You will need to check that out after you get the solid bronze one in there, if it is wearing unevenly, then you will need to check the alignment of the bellhousing.

This. :nod:

Pain in the ass, I hope not. The bell housing has those nubs to seat "correctly" in the block. I'll be reporting back...

You would have to get offset dowel pins to re-align the bell to the crank to the trans. I am not even sure how you go about checking it with the LT/LS trans' since they don't use the TO bearing retainer and have a concentric hole in the center of the bell

Probably would require yanking the midplate and using that.

yo have to take the front plate off the trans. There are some videos online how to do it. I used RobbMc offset dowels on mine.

I'd be willing to bet the pilot is your issue. How does the tip of the input shaft look? If the bearing is worn it could be hanging up and not allowing the trans and engine to separate fully (but enough to change gears). IIRC, Creeper had one fail and chew up the input shaft. I have an extra one laying around if you want, or NAPA has them for less than $10.

Tip looks fine and the rest of it is smooth all around with no gouges in it. That makes sense the pilot bushing/bearing is my issue. I just hope the dirt grease and grime is an optical illusion its sitting slightly off center and my problems end here. I'll just pick up a new one from the store but thank you.

Pilot bearing was it and no scouring on the inside. I replaced it with a bushing as well as replaced the throw out bearing and all is well. Thanks for all your input!