Loud "pop" after clutch install, won't go into gear..

[Chris_H]

Ok guys here is what happened;

Went over to a guys house and used his lift to change the clutch. I bought a clutch kit from Car Quest since I have one in there now and have liked it a lot. We drop the tranny, take the fly wheel down to have it resurfaced. We come back, install the clutch disc, pressure plate, and bellhousing w/ the new throw out bearing. We go to put the tranny up (Tremec 3550) and the tranny won;t go in. To make a long story short, we pulled the throw out bearing out about an hour later and realize it won;t go over the input shaft, its too skinny. So we grab my old throw out bearing and throw it on since we know it fits. We finally get the tranny up in the car, and it won't seat all the way, its about an inch off at the most. So we line up the bolt holes after trying for an hour, and walk the tranny in with the bolts.
We finally get everything back together and I put it in reverse and back off the pad. Seems to work fine. Put it in first and pull back up on the pad. Works fine. So my buddy leave and I stay to clean up. When I went to leave, I backed up about 10 feet, and put it in first to leave. As soon as I let off the clutch in 1st, there was a kind of loud "pop" sound and that was it. Car would not go into gear after that with the engine running. Tried to put it in reverse and it grinded. I tried adjusting the clutch with the firewall adjuster, tried to get it in gear, and again nothing. So i put it back up on the lift, and ceck the clucth cable. There is play in the clutch cable, by about 1-2 inches. This was yesterday afternoon. So I am going back over tonight when it drops below 100* to work on it some more.
I am thinking either the clutch cable came loose on the shift fork, or the shift fork came loose inside the bell housing, if thats even possible? Anybody have any suggestions as to what this could be? How bad is it to reuse the throwout bearing? Was it bad to walk the tranny in fully by using the bolts like that? I am hoping I haven;t screwed anything up too bad. But this was my first time doing a clutch, and it completely sucked.
I have the Steeda firewall adjuster, and clutch quadrant if that makes any difference there. Sorry for the long post, but this sucks having to leave it at this guys house even though he doesn't care. ANY help is greatly appreciated.

Chris