Hi all,

I was changing the timing belt on my 95 del sol Si and to get the crank pulley loose i put the car in gear and had someone stand on the brakes..eventually i had to lock the flywheel to get it off though...

My question is..the head is off the car for other reasons and i left the car in gear to turn the engine over by spinning the wheel (up on jack stands) but it feels like there is no connection between the wheels and engine despite being in gear??
I felt something while trying to get the pulley off but i didn't think anything of it and just went on to blocking the flywheel.
What could be causing the disconnect in the transmission? i looked at the slave mechanism but it seems to be working correctly.

 

the "disconnect" you're feeling is just the open differential. what this means (and why the performance minded install limited slip diffs) is that power (literally torque) is sent to the wheel with least resistance/traction. working backwards, when you turn one wheel in an attempt to spin the motor the other wheel has less resistance than the engine so it spins instead (and in the opposite direction).

the solution is to keep the other wheel still, either have a friend hold it, set it on the ground, or wedge a prybar in the wheel or something.

so from the info you've given, everything is functioning as it should.