Throwout bearing self aligning or standard

player1up said

After doing some searching I found some patent info on the web but it's like reading a mortgage loan doc. It appears that there is some sort of tapered...oh well just look....
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Self-aligning-roller-thrust-bearing_din728_ex.png

Click to expand...

The roller elements are tapered and barrel shaped. If the thrust face did not contact square or the thrust forces were not perpendicular to the thrust face can rock in the race and still maintain even loading on all the bearing elements.

It should be a better design in an application where the loading is not even but its not to any degree in a mopar manual tranny design. Is it necessary to have this ability in our cars? Or, is this really unique? Could be they have been using this design for ever, I know I don't take throw out bearings apart.

Seems what ever they have been selling for the past 40 years has held up fine so I kind of think its a marketing gimmick to lighten our wallets more.