88 gxl..
just as the title says, the transmission refuses to disengage from the flywheel.

here's what happened:
normal day. reverse it out of the driveway. i'm in the street and i can't shift to first, or any gear for that matter. no loud or strange noises, just refuses to shift from then on. the car will even start in gear, but as if it were clutched. this makes the starter very unhappy.

upon inspection, it is deduced that everything is fine up to the transmission. so i strip the exhaust, heat shields, crossmember, speedo cable, etc., etc..
after removing the engine-transmission bolts, i try to pull it out. won't budge. double checked everything, but it all looks clear.
the next step involved wrapping a steel hand-crank towing cable around the transmission and anchored to another vehicle. after applying literally thousands of pounds of force and lots of heavy prying, we've got a one inch gap between engine and trans.
more prying and cranking yields nothing, except scraping the ramps the car is on across the concrete.

now, i would just tow it out with the anchor vehicle as something is seriously defunct anyway, but i'm afraid of causing serious damage to the rear end of my car and the front end of the other car when (if) the transmission actually pops out.

the theory at this point:
the pilot bearing is either locked or melted, fusing the flywheel to the input shaft of the transmission. this also explains why it wouldn't shift, as the shaft would always spin, clutched or not.

the transmission itself has always been a bit faulty, and when i replaced the clutch 4 or so months ago, the previous pilot bearing was almost entirely disintegrated, except for the outer sleeve which i had to cut out. nothing was damaged by the cutting.
my clutch installation was flawless as far as i know, and it's been solid since then, until now.

to conclude this elaborate post..
does anyone else care to guess at an explanation for this series of events?
i'm going to try using nuts and bolts to screw the transmission away from the engine, but if anyone else has a better idea, i'd love to hear it.

 

I wouldn't try putting force on the bellhousing with bolts and nuts, it'd probably just break.

 

WOO! What the hell did you do to the car to cause this?? If you apply a lot of force anywhere, you are likely to break something. Try shooting a little liquid wrech in there and letting it sit for a day or two......

 

you see, that's the baffling thing..
i didn't 'do' anything to it. it simply happened between reversing out of my driveway and trying to put it in first.

the gap is maybe half an inch. not enough to see or reach anything at all. liquid wrench wouldn't exactly help unless i pushed the trans back against the engine and filled it with the stuff. there's not really anything to use it on, except where the pilot bearing is.

so, there's really no way to get it out without causing further damage. i don't mind junking the transmission. i've always needed a new one, but the engine is solid.

thanks for the ideas, though.
got any more?

 

I would pull the Engine/tranny as a unit and then cut the tranny off(since you said its trashed). You can then see if you can get the Input shaft out of the E-shaft without trashing the E-shaft. Sounds like the Input shaft has galled itself to the roller bearing. You did lightly lube the new roller bearing with the correct grease didn't you?

 

are you sure you removed everything?? like the shifter, clutch release and the starter? hate to point out the obvious stuff, but what's too obvious is easily forgotten. because if it had melted the pilot i would think it would come out after making it move a half inch.

 

I had ALOT of difficulty when pulling the motor out of another rx7. I was trying to seperate it from the tranny instead of pulling it out as one unit. it took a while. but with alot of pulling, it will come out. You cant really damage anything by pulling the tranny with force... (read: chains and truck ), but you CAN damage stuff by prying.

 

yep.. everything was definitely removed..

like i said, previous clutch installation was flawless and has been great for the past 4 months. pilot bearing was greased properly.

i might end up having to take out the engine/trans as a unit, but if i can avoid it, i'd like to.

thanks, and keep the ideas coming

 

i'm not worried about damaging the transmission by pulling it out.
what i'm saying is, it's taking so much force that i'm worried about either the trans itself or the steel cables snapping back and damaging the rear end.

so far, we've put so much force on it, that the engine mounts are starting to bend. the ramps the car is on have moved several inches across concrete.

 

My engine and tranny were stuck together after i unbolted everything. I ended up lying under the pass side of the car with a rubber mallot and a flat head screwdriver, just tapped it in, wiggled, gave it alittle, worked my way all the way up. Evently it came free

 

this transmission is entirely different.
it is evil.
it is out for blood.

it will not come out of the sadfjads;fj engine.

THOUSANDS of pounds of force here.

 

Is one of the engine-to-trans bolts carching, maybe? We must have tugged on my engine for twenty minutes before finding a nut that hadn't been removed entirely and was still hancing on by healf a thread - 4 of us coudln't get the two apart more than half an inch.

Maybe you can get a deep socket with a universal in there and unbolt the clutch from the flywheel? That'd probably be a huge pain in the ***, though... but it might be worth a try!

 

all bolts are definitely removed.

 

Instead of just pulling, maybe try turning the shaft also.

What I'm thinking is select 4th or 5th, put in the drive shaft, lock the flywheel if possible and turn the shaft back & forth while pulling the tranny back..

 

Pull the inspection plate off the bottom and Sawzall the input shaft off

 

everything is off right? All four bolts, and the one guide bolt on top with the nut on it? I can't think of anything in there that could get stuck like that.
I say just pull them (engine+tranny) together as a unit and go from there.

 

There are more than four engine/trans bolts. I want to say there is six.

 

six bolts and a nut, miss any one of them and you'll have a hell of a time taking it out

 

when i rebuilt my tranny, it was hard to take it off too.. i noticed that once i took off the slave cylinder, it was a lot easier.. ouno if that might be the case?

 

heh, I like the sawzall idea

 

thanks for the ideas, folks.

i've checked many times to make sure i haven't been utterly stupid and left a nut or a bolt, and i haven't.

after attempting to hold the flywheel and turn the transmission, it looks as though the two are locked in a death grip.

i'm gonna try screwing the transmission away from the engine.
if that doesn't work, i'm gonna rent a plasma cutter

 

If you could turn the flywheel, you might try taking the inspection plate off the bottom of the trans and removing the pressure plate bolts.

I doubt it'd help, but it may be worth a try before you cut the trans all to hell and back.

I think I have an extra NA trans in storage if you need one

 

i appreciate the offer, felix.

i'll contact you if you're interested in selling it when the time comes

 

Hey, Felix, I thought I would get your tranny so I could "stack them like cordwood to switch them out" when I put the TII engine in, heh

 

Someone needs to get it, its the last of my parts.