Throwout Bearing Spring Installation Error, 1/2" makes a huge difference!!!! Options

[Lamont]

Well as some of you know I'm in the process of installing a 1MZ FE V6 into my 94 GT. Well the motor is in and running and now I'm just getting ready to send it to the exhaust shop to get a full 2 1/2" custom exhaust installed. The swap itself isn't too hard, but small errors turn out to cause huge headaches. I mated a FWD LSD transmission from a Caldina swap to my 1MZ FE and thought I did a pretty good job considering I did this without any help, but once the motor was installed and running the transmission wouldn't shift into any gear while the motor was running. With the motor turned off it would shift into every gear with no trouble at all. So I was stumped and decided to look back at some of my pictures to see if I could pick up on any issues that I may have overlooked. Here is what I found:


Here is the throwout bearing as it was installed when I first acquired the transmission(note the spring position flush to the throwout bearing):



Here is the throwout bearing just before I mated it to the 1MZ FE(note the spring position flush to the clutch fork wrong *don't do this*):


Notice that the throwout bearing spring is installed snug to the clutch fork in picture 2. This is incorrect and caused the transmission not to shift into any gear while the motor was running. If you look closely you can see that the throwout bearing spring in picture 2 is actually under the clutch fork and my guess is that once the clutch pedal was depressed and the slave cylinder pushed against the clutch fork that the spring caught under the clutch fork keeping it from fully disengaging the clutch and causing me to use some colorful words while expressing my feelings. So the lesson here is to take your time and make sure to take tons of pictures for reference, so when you are having issues you can look back at your progress and find the small mistake that can cause all types of issues. Oh and taking the transmission off the motor while it's still in the car is insane and should only be done if you have patients. I used a jack, cherry picker, and a few ratchet straps together to get this done, and still could have used a hand. Hopefully this helps someone to not make the same mistake