Can a clutch be replaced with engine in place?

[metallicareload99]

1968 Charger, 440, cast iron bell housing, 143 tooth flywheel.

Last fall car was shifting fine until I snapped the bell housing side ball-stud for the torque shaft off. I had to drive it a few miles to get it home. I then backed the adjusting nut almost all the way off the rod so I could start it and shift into reverse to the garage.

Long story, longer, rebuilt engine, resurfaced flywheel, new torque shaft hardware and stuff, adjusting rod, new release bearing.  Greased pilot bore, and pilot bearing, checked bell housing runout 0.007, maybe a little less. Same clutch disc, pilot bearing, and pressure plate from last fall, they were new/rebuilt and resurfaced less than 7,000 miles ago...

-Now if I start engine in neutral, I can not shift into gear. Pedal moves fine and the fork seems to move fine too. No matter how much or how little play I have in the adjusting rod clutch will not release

-If I try to start with transmission in 1st and clutch pedal on the floor, engine fires but stalls instantly and I think I hear the throw out bearing rumbling. When I have someone push the pedal to the floor, I can fit 0.050 feeler gage between the disc and pressure plate but it is very hard to get the disc to turn in this situation.

-I think if there was a problem with input shaft/splines/bell housing/pilot bearing it maybe difficult to move and rotate the disc, but not this difficult. It seems like the disc and or pressure plate are warped since the disc doesn't seem to actually be free when the pedal is on the floor.
-It seems to me that something else went wrong with the clutch last fall, maybe I overheated the clutch? I thought that if I fixed the obvious problem I wouldn't have to worry about the rest of the clutch. Thanks for any assistance

[PRH]

Yes, clutch is easily replaced without engine removal.

I would be suspicious of the fit between the trans input shaft and pilot bushing.

You could try adjusting the clutch so you had a bigger air gap, and then see if you can slip the disc fore and aft on the shaft when the pedal is depressed.

If it still seems all bound up, then I guess it might have some warpage.

To fix either though, the trans has to come out.

[metallicareload99]

Thanks Dwayne