T-5 bearing retainer

I was wondering if any of you have had any problems with the steel bearing retainer for a T-5.

Background info:
Last year I replaced the flywheel, clutch, pressure plate, throw out bearing and bearing retainer in my Mustang. I used the King Cobra clutch and pressure plate system and bought one of the steer bearing retainers to replace the factory aluminum one. Around October of the same year, I started hearing a popping sound every time I pressed the clutch pedal. I thought maybe the stock clutch quadrant was bad so I replaced it with the Steeda quadrant and firewall adjuster. Still heard the popping. So I pulled the transmission again and discovered that the steel rod in the new bearing retainer was moving! The popping sound I heard was it sliding forward and hitting the clutch disc. So, I bought another one. Problem solved...or so I thought. Just a few weeks ago the clutch started making the same noise and feel as it did when the first steel bearing retainer went bad. So my question to you all is have any of you had this same problem and if so, what did you do to fix it?

Thanks

ratrapp said:

are you checking shaft endplay when you changed to the steel retainer?most people just reuse the original shim that came in the tranny.this isn't always acceptable.

Click to expand...

Honestly? No. I didn't realize I should be checking for this. Guess I need to do a little more reading. So how would the shaft endplay affect the bearing retainer?