So the engine now happily turns over and the starter sounds good, not labored at all anymore. I can still get it to fire up for a few seconds with the throttle open and abruptly quit. I rechecked timing, it still is as good as I can get it. Anyways, I was thinking we were on the winning track then I thought I'd try putting the truck in gear and try cranking it that way. With the clutch fully depressed I hit the key and the whole truck jumped like it would if you forgot to put the clutch in, and now I can't even get it out of gear, with the clutch fully depressed of course. So basically my brand new Aisin clutch is doing nothing. I know the slave cylinder is depressing the clutch fork, I watched it move when my wife pushed the pedal. So now I can't really do anything other than buy a transmission jack and drop it out and see what the heck is going on. Im definitely not pulling the engine again.
Has anyone even heard of this happening with a new clutch?

 

That's way outside of my experience, someone else'll have to chime in. Might be something really obvious once you've got the transmission out and take another look. Backwards disk or maybe the spring clips popped of the fork.

Since your cam's original you don't need to worry about the break-in revving.

 

Yeah, once I calmed down and started looking into it, it may just be the slave cylinder not depressing the clutch fork all the way. Or air in line. It did seem to work just fine prior to the rebuild tho. So looks like another part will be in the mail.
thanks again

 

Another possibility is that the clutch fork had a small crack that finally gave way. That would cause the conditions you've got.

 

So i got it out of gear by pulling the clutch fork with a ratchet strap and it came out. So a new master/slave is in order. The big news is that when i was checking my timing for the 100th time I noticed to my horror that the timing chain was a solid 10 teeth off on the sprocket. I used the engnbldr kit that everyone seems to like and lined up everything and torqued it correctly. I had zip ties on until the end when i put the cover on. How does that happen?? hopefully I can realigned it without taking the whole cover off by loosening the tensioner with a screwdriver or something. So my timing has definitely been off...

 

What method did you use to determine the chain was 10 links off? Are you going by setting the crank pulley to 0° while checking the distributor rotor (or testing the valves)? If you do that, you can't expect the cam gear dimple to be where it was when you first installed the timing set. There's some sort of math with the number of gear teeth and chain links that cause it to not line up like that hardly ever again.

 

Yeah you beat me to it, I needed to go another whole revolution and they lined up again. Little sprocket to big sprocket, pretty simple. Sorry for the stupid panic post haha

 

I think what gsp4life is saying is that the mark on the CHAIN does not line up with the mark on the SPROCKET each time around. This is intentional (in gearing it's called a "hunting pattern") so that if there is a burr on a sprocket it doesn't systematically wear a single link. So if you just see a mis-match between the chain mark and the sprocket, don't worry about it.

What you care about is when the cam sprocket is pointing up, the crank is at TDC.

 

+1
Much better explained than what I said. Good to know the reason behind the "hunting pattern".

 

so my transmission jack finally showed up. Man I'm glad I waited for it, can't imagine the job without it. I was able to finally break the transmission free after a crazy amount of pulling and shaking it. Much to my surprise, well not really at this point with everything else I've gone through, a bunch of plastic pieces and springs fell out when it broke free. The clutch disc was completely broken around where the input shaft is supposed to go in. I have no idea how this happened, but it definitely explains lack of clutch function! Is 88' 22re an in between year or something with clutches/transmissions? Rock auto showed that the Aisin ckt-024 would fit, but it doesn't appear to fit over the input shaft now that I look at it. Or the friction disc is just too roached to fit anymore, no idea, but I need to get a new disc now obviously. Destroyed!

 

Well that sucks, but glad you've got a logical conclusion.

I've gotta drop my tranny soon as well and been debating strapping it to a standard jack. Sounds as much of a pain as I thought.

 

Don't. Listen to Wyofunrunner. I have done just what you describe, and I won't try it again.

 

Point taken, thanks.

Fyi, Harbor Freight's got a 25% coupon on the 29th of this month (I know what I'm using mine on).

 

I used the same coupon, pretty reasonable considering they charged me $6 to ship a 40 lb jack. It was too tight to use the supplied strap so I used smaller straps to secure it to the jack. I also dropped an adjustable strap through the shifter hole for back up. Glad I did as the center of gravity was too far back with the t case connected and the jack wanted to tip back.

 

Good stuff to know before I slam a w56 onto concrete.

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No, no. Don't worry about the transmission. It will land on your arm (foot, hand, crotch), and that will cushion the fall.

Okay, I didn't drop my transmission when I did it, but the whole thing was scarier than I like. Buy, borrow, rent a transmission jack is my advice.

 

The HF 450 lb. tranny jack's only $75+tax after the coupon. I'd think renting one for the day wouldn't be much less and I'd undoubtedly need it again right after I return it.

 

Oh, man, don't do that.

Put it on Craigslist, sell it for $40-50 or so. https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/tls/6137133598.html You'll feel better about it.

Me, I'd spring for the extra $45 to get the hydraulic version. I have no idea where the Center of Gravity of my transmission is, and I think having a jack with an extra 12" of base length may avoid tipping. Which may avoid having it land on something soft (like my hand).

But weigh my advice with the knowledge that I DON'T own any transmission jack.

 

The cheaper jack does the job, id just have a buddy steady it as u quickly lower it out. Or put a 2x4 across the shifter hole and run an adjustable cam strap around it and the back of the tranny and let it out little by little as u lower the jack down if solo. Works fine.

 

Oh, I won't be returning the HF unless it breaks. I meant right after I brought a rental back, I'd likely need to rent it again.

I checked out the hydraulic one and it's very nice, but I'll probably end up with the cheap one. Reasons: Hopefully I'll use it way less than once a year and money is tight right now.

I know the bellhousing's light cause I've had it off for cleaning (8 lbs?), so I'd bet my hand that the fulcrum is in the middle minus the bellhousing. Also, I'll take the advice of Wyofunrunner and send a safety strap through the shifter hole.