1926 Tudor- strange sounds but no go.

Before I really go tearing the transmission I want to get some opinions on what could be happening.

when in neutral the car will roll about 2 inches before there's a loud CLUNK. I suspected the pinion gear in the diff, but with the engine out there's no issue at all and it rolls perfectly and silently.

The bands were snug when the pedals were depressed. The car could start both manually and with the starter if the engine was already hot. However, depressing the drive pedal or reverse resulted in a loud whining sound and barely any movement at all, except for maybe a nudge as if someone weakly pushed on the back.

could the clutch plates be the issue or is the problem deeper? the crankshaft isn't snapped as turning the flywheel by hand also moves the pistons (can hear the compression) and fan.

already have the engine pulled and beginning disassembly so I can patch where the previous owner dropped the engine and it landed on a petcock. I do have a video illustrating the problem but the post feature does not seem to allow attachments.