Yep, been there, done that too. Have the oil stains on the driveway to prove it. Actually, they're gradually going away now.

Anyway on the clutch subject, I went for what was behind door number one at Vertex as well. Nice kit. Comes with clutch disc, release bearing and pressure plate. All in nice, easy to carry boxes.

While in there, I did the pilot bearing in the center of the flywheel (I mean crankshaft), the bearings on the release bearing fork shaft and misc plugs and hardware.

The transaxle was a whole other story. But it made sense to do the clutch while I had the gearbox out to fix the R & P.

See the pretty pictures?....

 

Ah, now I get it, it looks rather painful.

 

Okay, here's the update.

Spun the tires with the clutch down, the input shaft (I assume it's under a plug, and you can see it after removal of the plug) spins, so my R&P is okie dokie?

Noise is all coming from the clutch area, so I'm pretty sure it's there

 

Yep. Sounds like you can eliminate the R&P. As long as things turned smooth.