i just got back from helping a friend fix their noisy civic transmission. i gather this is a common failure and we replaced the input bearing accordingly.
upon dissection, i found this:
the spalling is from high load, but i also suspect that the spacing of the spalled regions has its origin in the original assembly of the conrad bearing in the first place. there's nothing like a little assembly brinelling to disrupt smooth rotation and cause high localized loading impulses.