hi,

ok, so yesterday i got finished replacing my rear main seal, turned the car on, let it warm up and went to put it in reverse and i couldn't get it into gear. tried the other gears and nothing. when the car was off, i could get it into gear, but the clutch felt weird, like it was trying to move something that wasn't supposed to move. first i decided to purge the hydraulics of any air, just for the hell of it, and it did nothing. i then inspected the slave cylinder and the shift fork and found that the slave cylinder plunger was totally extended while installed without encountering any resistance from the shift fork. i then proceeded to tear the car back apart and remove the trans and all of the clutch components. nothing seemed amiss. once reinstalled, the issue was not resolved. any ideas? i'm not exactly a clutch expert obviously and i'd never carefully inspected any of my components, but it seems logical that the shift fork would sit snuggly close enough to the slave cylinder that the plunger would encounter resistance. my shift fork just moves easily back and forth from the point where it seems like it should sit to the point where the plunger can push it no farther. any help would be appreciated and i apologize for the novel.

 

i just took it apart again and removed the pressure plate and put the throwout bearing on the trans like it would be installed. when i inserted the fork, it felt totally different. my theory is that the throwout bearing isnt riding up high enough on the trans spindle to allow for the fork to actually go around it. this doesnt seem right though...id think the system would be designed in such a way as to not allow the trans to be completely installed without the throwout bearing moving into position.