Originally Posted by stansens

My thoughts are that the friction disc being held in place by the trans being in gear and parking brake engaged put sufficient forces on the pressure plate when you started to turn the crank bolt counter clockwise to loosen it. This action was opposite of the normal direction and usual forces etc. that have always been applied to this original pressure plate and it was sufficient force to slightly deform it which is why the diaphragm fingers are no longer in alignment. This means that the friction disc does not fully disengage when depressing the pedal so it is hard to shift from one gear to the next or from neutral into a gear. Outhouse luck and most likely a rare occurrence. I feel for you and as you know you need a new clutch. Release bearing, pilot bushing (or bearing in Nismo) pressure plate and friction disc is what will probably be needed as you have probably figured out. Thanks for posting so others use a different method to loosen this difficult crankshaft bolt.