I just made a 1000 mile round trip from Alabama to home and back again. Upon arrival last night I noticed a slight squeal with the clutch depressed. Drove the last couple miles to the rv and sure enough I am hearing it while changing gears. When I parked I left the engine running and it appears the bearing is turning constantly. That might explain why it is failing prematurely, only 70k on the bearing. 

 So today I determined that the bearing is definitely turning all the time. I removed the slave and started the engine and no noise, the bearing was not spinning. I replaced the slave about 60k and never compared it to the original.   So I am thinking that maybe the rod is a little long and has been spinning the bearing for a long time.  . I shortened the rod a little better than 1/4" and re installed it. The bearing is still spinning, engine on and clutch released. The clutch feels no different. I still have about 1/2" to 3/4" movement before meeting much resistance. So I am thinking I will shorten the rod another quarter inch and see what happens. I cant help but think if the rod was to long that the bearing would have held up this long constantly spinning. Is there something else in there that could fail and cause the bearing to be engaged all the time?

 I know the tranny has got to come off no matter what to get this fixed. I am just trying to either get it home and do it myself or find some one that wont bend me over the stump and do it right. To get it home I have got to get this bearing to stop spinning. 

Not wanting to make a man re live bad experiences, but I would like to know how the binding would cause the master to explode. Only for the sake of education. I really dont want to do this again.

 

This was during my install of my Southbend clutch and the throw-out bearing gotten jammed up on the end of the shaft and hooked. So no matter how much I started to push the pedal it built pressure till BOOM! It exploded and blew the whole side wall off the master cylinder out. So I had to replace the master cylinder and then pull the transmission back get the throw-out bearing un-bound and sliding on the sleeve. Never had another issues after that.