Cannot get car in gear.

[monkeytaco]

m52 swap with zf320.

new clutch slave cylinder, everything bled properly (bench bled slave, pressure bled from the bottom up) and looking at the clutch it appears to work properly. (I can see it actuating through the small holes on the transmission.

The clutch does not release, ever. Even though it appears to function.

Off, the car will go in gear just fine, as i would expect. Once on I can't get it in gear, and it doesn't grind.

Whether with the clutch pushed in or not, if I attempt to force it in to gear the car starts to move, but the gears don't grind. It feels like the clutch is partially engaged.

My setup is the original e39 setup with dual mass flywheel (its the exact same part numbers as the e36 328).

The only thing I can think of is that I put the clutch disc in backwards, which I'm reasonably certain I didn't do, I seem to remember looking at diagrams to make sure I was putting it in correctly.

I don't really want to try and pull the transmission if I don't absolutely have to. If anyone has another idea, i'm all ears.

FML.

[99em1]

Had that same issue. My pivot was no longer in place, causing the fork to ride further forward. Looking into the slave hole is one way to check, I knew something was off in pedal feel. Could also be the pedal itself, as mine was, but if you recently had the clutch stuff apart that's the most likely source of error.

However, when my issue was the pivot, I could never shift. Ever. No force attempts, because I could feel that with the amount of resistance I had trying to engage a gear, that forcing harder would be stupid.

When my pivot was fixed and I had a rough time shifting into 1st, 2nd or reverse, I could get the car to slowly roll in the direction of the gear by trying to shift into the gear without forcing it in. I realized taking off the slave that the beginning of the rod's travel wasn't very stiff. Took it off, compressed the rod and bled which made it stiff through out. Also replaced a deformed pedal and together regained over an inch of useable pedal travel.

[monkeytaco]

I thought the culprit was bleeding, and made quadruple sure its all bled correctly. The slave was very stiff the whole length of travel when i put it in, and it engaged the proper depression point on the pivot.

I have done a lot of reading and I think I am going to have to drop the transmission and check it all out, dammit.

Thanks for the info, it just further confirms my sad diagnosis.

Anyone live in Denver and have a lift? lol

[99em1]

sounds like you don't have a bleeding issue. even not totally bled, i could still shift after I bolted the tranny up. Just wouldn't disengage 100%.

As for putting the disc in backwards, the disc says which side faces which right on it. Any chance you installed the throw out bearing incorrectly? There's only so many components in there to trouble shoot. Should be easy to see if you pull it apart again, even though that sucks hard.