Shifting gears
 

Another question I should probably know but I haven't driven my 7 in a few months now and forget how it should feel

With the engine off & without depressing the clutch pedal..... should I be able to move the shifter in and out of the gears freely?

It was my understanding that the clutch pedal moves the shifting fork which releases the pressure plate, allowing the shifter to move on /out gears.

Please share your thoughts, thanks

Not very easily. If you take it out of one gear and put it back in the same one, it should go pretty in easily but have resistance into any other gear.

With the engine off there's nothing spinning around to grind against each other preventing gear engagement. So with the clutch still engaged it's resisting the engine's lack of movement.

the pressure plate only presses the clutch against the flywheel, has nothing to do with the way the gears are positioned...

and actually, yes it should go freely (or at least semi-freely) into ALL gears. if it doesnt, the gears are in the incorrect position on the trans shaft (not a happy ending). any manual vehicle i have ever driven has gone into all gears easily with the engine off, unless you are on a slope without the emergency brake on.

^Yep, unless there is something putting a load in the gears (like being on a hill or the car rolled forward slightly after you turned it off etc) it should go into and out of gear quite easily with your foot off the clutch and the engine off.

this is my experience with manuals. if youre on a flat surface (ive only driven a few manual cars) itll go into all the gears freely. if youre on a slope and you parked in gear then it wont pull out without the clutch or you pulling hard (but thats just mean).

That's why I always use my ebrake. I don't like to put pressure on the gears. Not that'll it'll hurt anything. It should shift fairly easily without the clutch pressed in on a flat surface. Sometimes without the ebrake it'll roll back and when you go to take it out of gear, you'll have to push in the clutch. I do put it in first after engaging the ebrake.

from my experience, first or reverse both work for parking gears.

most of my rotaries will try and roll in gear on slopes. Damn old engines...

idk about that lol, i never tried with mine lol i always set the parking brake.

This thread is the most informative thread I've read all day!

Rotaries are about 100000 times easier to turn over than a piston engine... I've had my car roll down a slight incline in all gears.. Rebuilt motor too. :)

I never leave my car in gear when parking - parking brake only, plus crabbing the wheels if on a slope.

I spend so much time driving autos that if the car's in gear when parked I have a high likelihood of trying to start it that way - which leads to all sorts of unpleasantness since the starter will happily pull the car.

Not much rotating resistance on a stopped rotary. You can turn the engine by hand, even on a perfect fresh build.

Plus using it e brake keeps things in that system working... If u don't use it it rust it more easily

So i was right thinking that something was fugged.
Me and a local rotor head got the motor to start today! Yay

Bad news is that as soon as I put it into gear it grinded and shut the motor down. Clutch pedal feels stiff as ever and I never had this issue the previous 4 or 5 times I have installed the engine. I went to re start the motor and the car started rolling forward when I was cranking.

The clutch is not dis engaging.

There are a million and one threads on this but no one ever post how they fix it

While I had the motor out I removed the throw out barring and inspected it.
What did I mess up this time???

The pilot bearing could be shot, or something is wrong with the clutch hydraulics or throw out bearing/clutch fork.

If the clutch pedal feels normal, my bet is on the pilot bearing, especially with how many times you've had it apart. When it goes out the input shaft on the tranny will spin with the e-shaft whether the clutch is working right or not, usually not enough to make the car roll but it can happen.

If that's not it, then the clutch fork could be bent or the pivot ball broken, throwout bearing installed wrong, or the hydraulics need bled/replaced.

Could also just be the adjustment on the clutch pedal, if there is much free play in the clutch pedal before it gets stiff it won't disengage a new clutch, needs all the travel it can get.