Do things happen in three's

[Rolomorris]

2 door saloon that has done 1500 miles since nut and bolt rebuild. Driving home after attending classic car event at a steady 60mph on the A14 it was if I had turned the ignition off, had enough speed to get to a layby and soon found no spark from King lead. Blaming the electronic ignition changed the distributor still no spark had to be the coil. Called the AA who arrived and fortunately had a coil in his van, he followed me home to get his coil back!
Taking the duff coil apart found that the wire had fractured half way between the input terminal and the coil. I had a oil drip for some time from the clutch housing so removed engine to investigate. The leak was coming from the gearbox front cover however I found bits of black carbon in the housing which was from the back of the carbon thrust bearing not from the face which was perfect! Removing the gearbox front cover to check the shim measurement found the cage in the input shaft bearing had broken. So three things 1. coil well known gold sports coil 2. carbon clutch thrust bearing 3. input shaft bearing again top quality and the car was driving fine. Have purchased resin filled coil another carbon thrust and bearing is this a quality issue or bad luck.

[Blaketon]

I think you can get better release bearings - https://www.frontline-cars.co.uk/ . They do five speed conversions but I think they cater for non hydraulic clutches. I know they do roller/ball bearing release bearings for things like Midgets, which originally used carbon bearings.