Before I drop my trans and replace a couple things….

[Ruby_the_ranger]

My ‘98 ranger manual 4wd is making a sound whenever I’m off the clutch and in gear, neutral, driving etc. pretty much any time it sounds like a quiet grinding. It goes away when I have the clutch in and I’m not too sure what it could be. Pilot bearing? Throw out bearing? Clutch?
any feedback would be greatly appreciated! This has been grinding my gears:/

 

[RonD]

Throw out bearing

Reads like when its spinning with no pressure its making the noise
Coast down a hill engine off in Neutral clutch pedal up
The pressure plate will not be spinning, engine off, so throw out bearing will not be either, so no noise, if that's what it is

Pilot bearing is only used when clutch pedal is down, it allows the transmission's input shaft to spin at a different RPM than the engine, so its inner and outer sleeves are spinning at same RPM with clutch pedal up, its possible for it to make a noise that way but would be an odd failure, and would expect more noise with clutch pedal down

Same for clutch disc, its only spinning at a different RPM from the engine when pedal is down

Throw out bearing is in contact with pressure plate forks all the time, and with clutch pedal up it should spin freely with the pressure plate, if its not then you could be hearing that as metal scraping noise
With clutch pedal down throw out bearing is forced to spin at pressure plate RPMs so no noise

You probably should change it

 

[Ruby_the_ranger]

Throw out bearing

Reads like when its spinning with no pressure its making the noise
Coast down a hill engine off in Neutral clutch pedal up
The pressure plate will not be spinning, engine off, so throw out bearing will not be either, so no noise, if that's what it is

Pilot bearing is only used when clutch pedal is down, it allows the transmission's input shaft to spin at a different RPM than the engine, so its inner and outer sleeves are spinning at same RPM with clutch pedal up, its possible for it to make a noise that way but would be an odd failure, and would expect more noise with clutch pedal down

Same for clutch disc, its only spinning at a different RPM from the engine when pedal is down

Throw out bearing is in contact with pressure plate forks all the time, and with clutch pedal up it should spin freely with the pressure plate, if its not then you could be hearing that as metal scraping noise
With clutch pedal down throw out bearing is forced to spin at pressure plate RPMs so no noise

You probably should change it

That was my original guess, I’ve driven a couple other cars (91 Miata, and I believe it was a 2000 mustang) with known bad throw out bearings before and never heard it so that’s why I was leaning towards other things, thank you.