After a complete engine rebuild, pressure plate replacement, new slave and master cylinders, my 85 GSL will not (without force) shift out of or into gear with the clutch depressed. This happened just a few hundred miles after all the rebuilding. A few emails from the repair shop...all no help. Any thoughts what they got wrong?

 

A few things to check; you replaced both the Master Cylinder AND Slave Cylinder at the same time, yes? Also, did the shop change the Pilot Bearing in the end of the eccentric shaft, or reuse the old one? Also, did they remove the Pilot Bearing and grease seal?

The flexible line should be checked for integrity and leaks under pressure, but you'd see this in hydraulic fluid spraying. The hard line needs to be checked for corrosion.

The symptoms you describe sound like a grenaded Pilot Bearing, in that the bearing rollers have disintegrated and are causing enough friction between the eccentric shaft (*spinning) and the Transmission Input Shaft (*not spinning) to create tension on the syncronizers such that its difficult to shift. An older Pilot Bearing can usually be left alone and work fine - as long as it has a slight amount of grease and the grease seal installed. Otherwise, installation of a new bearing requires the right tool to insert to proper depth without damaging it on installation.

A quick way to check is to put the Transmission shift lever in neutral, let out the clutch and see if it gets quieter. Push in the clutch, get it into 1st gear, and listen for faint grinding noises. Upshot: if you ignore it long enough, the Pilot Bearing fully disintegrates and it'll get real quiet again! (*but then you'll have vibration problems from an unfettered input shaft, clutch disk, etc.).

Welcome aboard!