Gearbox Doesn't fit

Now , theres a gap of 4 or 5 mm, caused by washers being used as spacers on all the bolts even on the bolts on the two dowels. The dowels therefore are having no effect at all. Gearbox off and all the washers fell onto the ground. I thought it might have been a remedy trying to cure the stuck release arm. New 3 piece clutch on, arm freed off nicely. gearbox on first time and bolts in but wont tighten the last 4mm and the flywheel wont turn, slacken them off and the flywheel turns. It would appear to need the washers re-fitted! Whats that all about?

Half of that is

Not sure what's going on there, but I can say that there is somrthing horribly wrong going on there.
Some ham fisted ape has buggered something up and did a dodgy with the washers to try and fix thier monumental cock up!

You'll need to seperate the gearbox from the engine again.
Check the spigot bearing in the crankshaft that supports the gearbox input shaft is in good condition and properly in place and not jamming the shaft.
Check the spilnes on the gearbox input shaft are in good conditon and the clutch plate slides on properly.
I trust you've used a clutch alingment tool before bolting the clutch pressure plate to the flywheel with a torque wrench to specifications?

Now once these checks have been done and proved to be Ok, the next thing that occurs to me is the posiblity that either the gearbox or engine has been rebuilt at some stage and either the gearbox input shaft is sticking out too far forward due to incorrect assembly on the flywheel is somehow sitting too far aft, though gwad only knows how!
I suspect that what is happening is: As you try and bolt the gearbag to the engine the the input shaft is pressing against the clutch, flywheel of the crankshaft causing binding.
 

+1 for it to either be the input shaft sticking out too far in relation to the gearbox casing or a manual gled spigot bearing in the end of the crank. First off could be to remove the spigot bearing to check its fine and theres nothing perhaps wedged behind it.

I'm not sure if the car has been driving like this but if it is just a new clutch that has been fitted the plate itself could be in the wrong way. There is a flat side and a deep side.
The flat side goes against the flywheel.
The wrong way round and the centre of the clurch plate rests on the spigot bearing.
The clutch wouldn't disengage.
If it has been driving it cant be that.

TA22GT wrote:

I'm not sure if the car has been driving like this but if it is just a new clutch that has been fitted the plate itself could be in the wrong way. There is a flat side and a deep side.
The flat side goes against the flywheel.
The wrong way round and the centre of the clurch plate rests on the spigot bearing.
The clutch wouldn't disengage.
If it has been driving it cant be that.
 

Actually on some car the clutch will work to some extent if the clutch has been fitted arse about, I recall a Ford Escort van with the 1.6 that  came in with a buggered clutch. The owner had replaced the clutch himself, but it was working strange and was making horrible noises, so he bought it in, for us to sort out.
I turns out the stupid bugger had put the friction plate in backwards!
I'm surprised it worked at all, but it did in a fashion, just not a fashion that should catch on......the friction plate was buggered!

I suppose there is no chance that someone has bodged on the wrong GBox that was not intended for a TF?

Now , wrong gearbox came up in conversation an hour (with all the spacer washers falling out) the rearmost M10 bolt at the bottom beside the exhaust came out with a large chunk of the engine 'we will have to do without that then, unless I TIG it back on'! When I inspected the chunk I noticed that a second hole had been drilled alongside the original. Not sure which hole was being used for the bolt but that might be another indicator that somebody had been struggling to get this gearbox to fit. Spacers??? Extra hole drilled. Also there was two bolts missing for no good reason and only one nut on the starter bolts!

Is there such a gearbox which would suit all the mountings except not go all the way on and the rearmost bottom thread be slightly in the wrong place?