I decided to replace first gear on my car last month. i opened the rear plate and could see the damage to both syncro teeth and the slider teeth so I bought the 1st gear kit which included both.

I opened the rear plate and understood I was supposed to engage a gear but missed the part about putting a spacer and locking the mid plate back down. So the mid plate was sliding up and down and the shifter moved to a new position. I can't get the thing to slide back so neutral is where it was, I can't get the 30mm bolt off either. The gear seems to be engaged but when I slide 1st down it has a little pace and does not fully engage.

Is there some kind of locking tool like the Flywheel lock that can be used to lock the gears so I get the whole thing apart?

If not, does anyone know how to get the gears to stop so I get the 30 mm bolt off?

did mine out of the car. impact gun took it right off.

How did you keep the gears from turning?

How much transmission fluid goes in when I finish the job?

I believe one fills it till it starts to spill out the filler hole

The Haynes manual indicates 2.6 quarts of 90 weight gear oil.

Geez, these are questions you should have asked before you started

If you click the link below for the rebuild, I go over how to engage 5th gear, do this and engage 1st as well. This will lock the stack and allow you to remove the 30mm bolt. You probably removed the slider and fork for first already, so you will need to put them back on to facilitate this.

As for the rest of your problem, I am not clear on what you are experiencing.

Thanks to all, I have removed and replaced the slider a couple of times trying to figure out how to get the mechanism to lock. but it doesn't hold for some reason it is tight enough that I can't turn it by hand but once I put a wrench on it and apply from real force the mechanism spins and grinds while doing it so naturally i stop.

Did you, simultaneously, select 5th gear as mentioned at the same time as 1st gear to lock the stack? It can not rotate once this is done. If it rotates, and you suspect that 1st is not gripping enough, retry to seat 1st. Other wise, you are gonna need an impact wrench or a special tool. Turning the pinion shaft will cause the stack to back out as the pinion pushes on the locked diff.

I did not select 5th gear as you described but one of the higher gears I believe is engaged. As I mentioned before a problem I am having is difficult to describe So I don't know how to word it so that it could be understood.

I was manually moving the gear selecting gears using the side shift outside the case while the rear plate was already off. I didn't secure the mid plate as you described and at first I was able to engage several different gears and return neutral.

At one point the mechanism slipped in a way was clearly not meant to slip as the side shifter was pointing a new direction. rotated. like neutral was now in a new location and to return to neutral a gear is engaged. I can still rotate the shifter and because I have seated the shifter in a position that does not slide inward and outward as it does when in neutral, I believe a higher gear is selected. I also observed in your pictures that when 5th gear is selected that the pole that is visible outside the mid plate is sunken. The pole I am refering to is 1 of 3. 2 barely stick through the mid plate and the third sticks way out and is the mounting point for the slider. at this time 1/3 poles is slightly sunken as it appears in your pics and the other is portruding up into about the same distance that the other is sunken. I have engage 1st gear by manually pushing the slider down onto the gear but it does not appear to be gripping well. There is some space between the slider and the gear.

Couple questions I have now.
1. will an impact wrench remove the bolt even without locking the stack?
2. is the speedo gear at the tip of the stack supposed to be rock solid? mine wobbles more than I would think it should.
3. If I remove the 13mm bolt holding the slider in place and then slide it all the way down against the gear will that hold the stack when force is applied to the 30mm bolt. (if not the 13mm bolt on the slider only locks in one position from what I can see due to the notch in the mounting pole)?

You need to remove the shift console. It is goofing up the whole works.

Thanks, I'll give that a try, I was thinking about doing that next time I get a chance to work on it.