Technical Gear grinds and other unpleasantries

A few weeks back my transmission started grinding (mostly on downshifts). It seemed to do it more after 30-60 minutes of driving once everything was nice and warm. The gearbox is a Saginaw 4 speed attached to a 283. Pretty low power (190 at the wheels). Its in a Model A (2300lb) with skinny wheels.

I pulled the transmission out and the first thing I found was the slip yoke was siezed up in the tail housing. The bushing ended up coming out still attached to the slip yoke (pretty blue from heat). I thought this might be the root cause as everything else looked ok. Slight wear on the shift forks and synchros but nothing out of ordinary. I swapped in a freshly rebuilt saginaw and at the same time re-tubed the drive shaft 1/2" longer. It wass hanging out of the transs 1.25" so just to be safe lengthened it .
I also noticed the master cylinder was leaking slightly so I rebuilt it and installed a new slave and bleed the system.
Got everything buttoned back up and the problem was still there so I pulled the transmission again and this time dropped the clutch. The input bushing was oversized pretty good. It measured about 0.615" The input shaft is about 0.590". Im thinking this is the problem. This means the input shaft was mostly unsupported when the clutch is disengaged. What do you guys think? Im dreading throwing it back together and still having a problem.

 

I was thinking poorly adjusted clutch linkage.

Are there multiple options on the throwout? I used a '62 truck bell with the hydraulic stuff and there were two spaces on the arm, one worked better in my hot rod than the other.

How does behave when rod is adjusted out further?

 

My bet is worn synchronizers or clutch adjustment.

 

The worn pilot bushing might have been slightly contributing to the clutch dragging, but there was probably something else wrong. Did you happen to notice how much free play there was in the pedal?

If the hydraulics were acting up and it got some air in the system, it would account for the grinding wouldn't it?

 

I checked the clutch adjustment pretty thoroughly throughout this ordeal. I verified that the TO bearing was of the fingers (had about 1 inch of pedal free play) I also made sure the clutch was disengaging. I did this by going from engaged/neutral to disengaged reverse with minimal pause. Since R is synchronized I would expect a grind if it the clutch was still partially engaged.
El Scotto, I have a 61 bell and associated linkage. I did try different adjustments to see If I could remedy the issue but no luck.

 

If you have access to a lathe, chuck the disc at its hub, and center up with a live center (inside ends of splines) Theory is that a worn pilot bushing may be a symptom to an out of plane clutch disc.
Also, replace that pilot bushing. (is a sealed pilot brg available for 283? DEAD center.)

 

I do have a lathe Mike so i can spin the disc to see if it's unbalanced. Im not sure if a sealed bearing is available. I installed a new bronze bushing last night. The clutch is still out of the car.