Not Able to Shift Gears

[CaptainClif]

Currently doing a 300 TDI/R380 swap and finished everything but now I can't get it in gear.
When the car is off I can put it in each gear.
In first Gear without pressing the clutch pedal, it won't start but tries.
Car will start in all gears with the pedal pressed, and when I start to release the pedal, the car will start to move, then stop when I push the clutch back in, but I can't get it out of gear.
Starting in neutral, I can move it almost to first, I can see the driveshaft budget but it won't totally engage. 2nd gear from neutral will start to grind.

At first I thought maybe the pressure plate and clutch were rusted together because it has been sitting for a minute, and maybe it is, but thought doing the above would break it loose, and the fact that I can engage/disengage the clutch if I start in gear also leads me to believe that isn't the problem.

The fellow I bought the engine and parts from sent me the wrong slave cylinder and the slave pushrod retaining clip from the LT77, so maybe the pushrod is also for that slave? Tomorrow I'm getting the for sure correct rod and then will compare the two of them.

Any other ideas what might be wrong or steps I can take to diagnose this issue?
I reallllyyyy don't want to pull the engine, again...

 

[4Runner]

Sound like the clutch isn’t disengaging as you have figured out. I would look hard the clutch system. Does the slave cylinder even move when you step on the pedal? Maybe just a good bleeding or some thing else. I wouldn’t be in a hurry to pull everything back out quite yet.

 

[CaptainClif]

Sound like the clutch isn’t disengaging as you have figured out. I would look hard the clutch system. Does the slave cylinder even move when you step on the pedal? Maybe just a good bleeding or some thing else. I wouldn’t be in a hurry to pull everything back out quite yet.

So I've bled the system and and good resistance on the pedal. I also verified that the slave is working as it should.
I should be getting that other pushrod today and will see if there is a length difference.

 

[kris812]

Normally on other old cars, there's adjustment on the push rod or somewhere to adjust freeplay on the clutch throw out bearing. Idk about on rovers. I've seen ford mustangs use some ratchet crap on the pedal.

The clutch can all be tested by parking on a hill or have a steady puller/pusher on truck (thinking small quad) and testing if the clutch is engaging and disengaging with the engine off..

Oddly this will eliminate other weird things like centrifugal clutches and such causing issues. Just kind of a foolproof way to test the clutch only, I thought I'd mention..

I've had shifting forks not fully disengage Before and transmission was getting stuck in gears and wanting to be in 2 gears at once/immobilized.. So that's not such a stupid test to do..

 

[CaptainClif]

Just an update. The new and correct rod was the same length and didn't change anything.
Jacked it up, started it in gear, took it up to 2k rpm, hit the brakes, nothing happened. Did that several times in 2nd and 3rd.
So maybe this weekend I'll split the engine from the tranny, I am able to slide the tranny back about 1 inch, and then will see if I can spot anything obviously wrong.
But it's looking more and more like I'll have to pull the engine or drop the tranny.