I'm out in CA and a co-worker had pulled his engine for some head work.

 

He got the engine and new clutch back in and it runs fine but the transmission is locked up tight. We pulled the back top cover and verified the linkage was moving and put it in neutral.

 

If you spin the input shaft or front diff stub axles everything moves fine. If you hold the stub axles and try to sping the input shaft it's locked up tight.

 

93 Legacy, 5 sp 153K on it. He said it went together fine and only had to pull it together when it got to the alignment pins.

 

If he would have damage something on the engine installation, I would think it would have been the input shaft but it is not loose and it does turn if you let the stub shafts turn.

 

Any thoughts? Very strange!

 

Thanks, Larry

NO obvious thoughts.

 

But how does clutch feel?

 

Wondering if anything with the TO bearing or something got messed up.

im confused. I'm trying to figure out how youre spinning the input shaft with it still in the car. You say you took the boot off the rear so i assume youre talking about the boot in the car? If it's out of the car the linkage is very sensitive to being in neutral and hard to take out of gear without pushing it into the next gear by mistake. If it's in the car hell just finish putting it together fill er up and see if it drives ok. If input is linked to the stub axles then it's in gear. If the trans was foced to the engine on install it usually damages the clutch disc. The trannies are tough enough that little bit wouldnt hurt the trans, it'd damage the clutch components first.

He pulled the trans out of the car.

 

This is just so strange. I'm not sure I have the complete picture, but I did check the trans and it seems locked up.

 

He said when he let the clutch out the engine would stall, even if he raised the RPM. Said the clutch felt fine and was releasing.

Could the problem be within the differential?

that's weird....is it possible to improperly bolt the engine/trans together like you can with an automatic and thereby hose something up? i've never had a problem but...

 

he's absolutely positive the trans was fine before installing the engine?

the pilot berring is not far enuff into the flywheel and input shaft is bottoming out on it or pilot is damaged or disk is backwards doubt its a trany problem have seen lots of pilot berring trubbles but never seen a trany get damaged enuf to lockup on engine install check your work

It sounds like normal operation for a transmission in gear. But you're saying that even with the trans in neutral the input shaft will not spin independently of the axle stubs? If you put the transmission into gear what changes? When you removed the top plate, did you make sure all three shift forks are in line? As screwy as it sounds, it is possible to get a transmission into two gears at the same time, which will cause it to lock up. There is also the possibility there is unrelated internal damage. It's not all that hard to split the case. Look up Gloyales easy front seal replacement thread for pics of the process.