i recently bought a starter gear from a 06 for my 87 and since my old one was a fixed unit and this one is the torque limiting one i have a question as to weather or not i should be able to turn the gears by hand or should they be too tight to turn on the gear shaft in other words how am i to know if it is good or needs rebuilt should my replacement gear be so tight that it acts as one unit or should i be able to ratchet it in one direction?

There are 3 separate gears, you should be able to rotate each one separately... with difficulty.

There are no "rebuild" kits for this, either it works, or it doesn't.

If you've gotten one in pieces, I gotta post in the tech section to put it back together.

As Dave's said, when assembled, cover bolted down and w/out the starter, you can reach in and turn the idle gear.  It will rotate freely in one direction only (the other turns the engine).  There are 2 thin washers that go on either side of the torque limiter gear that keep the splines from tearing up the case/cover, and none on the idle gear.