If I have my car in neutral, lift it on a Car Lift wheels not touching the ground, and if I spin the front wheels, will the crankshaft move?

No. The engine will not turn because the clutch is disengaged. And opposite wheel will not turn either, because of the differential action of the gears. But, if you hold one wheel the other cannot be turned. This whole deal is about turning corners where the torque requirements on each wheel vary. The engineers know about it.

If you run the car in the air one tire will start but eventually the other will spin as well. If one wheel is on the ground, then the free one will do all the spinning.

The engine crankshaft will not move. The transmission in neutral is not linked to the engine at all.

No. An automatic transmission will not turn the crankshaft when in neutral.

No. Think about it. If the wheels moved you couldn't run the engine without the car moving. Neutral breaks the link between the engine and the wheels.

Hey MORON! The CRANKSHAFT is INSIDE the engine. It rotates ALL THE TIME when the engine is running.

No. The opposite side tire will just spin backwards.

No. Fawk the lift. Go outside and find a hill, a slight slope, a depression, an undulation in your pool table world.

Every town has somewhere where it is is sloping somewhere. Even if it is only for 10 feet.

Park car on hill slope. Shut off engine. Put in neutral and you got a SOAP BOX CAR. All of the newer cars have Vacuum assisted power brakes and assisted power steering.(so it is expected the engine is running) so steering and brake pedal works.

--Experiment with wasting the vacuum in the engine by stepping on the brake pedal a few times and then you notice the brakes get real hard to press and you got ARMSTRONG steering. (Again, experiment someplace where it is SAFE AND YOU DON'T CRASH INTO STUFF LIKE A WALL, OR TREES.

Older manuals or VW did not have that and the brakes and steering worked the same if engine was running or not.

But as you are only rolling a short distance steering or braking is not so important as you are not going to be going fast.

You will note that the engine does not turn over. Now while rolling, slip the car into 4th gear using the clutch pedal and quickly release the pedal. The reason you are slowing down is because the wheels are connected to the motor turning the motor over. As the key is not turned on to the ignition lights on the dashboard, it is like turning over a compressor. It requires horsepower to turn over the motor.

So if brakes fail on a long hill going down, just turn off the key so the engine stops running and leave it in gear. Leave it in a lower gear and you stop quicker. Not immediately, but quicker than 4th gear. I use 2nd gear. As the engine is turning over there is vacuum so the brakes and steering still work.

Experiment with it. You can't hurt it. Just don't slap it into reverse when going forward. Or in a forward gear when rolling in Reverse. THAT WILL BREAK SOMETHING.

No, neutral disconnects the drive wheels from the engine. Some gears inside the transmission still turn, but the output shaft, which connects to the differential, is disconnected from the input shaft, which connects to the clutch plate.

Not when it is in NEUTRAL. You shouldn't have to guess. It should be common sense. The engine creates the power and the transmission TRANSMITS that power to the wheels [hence the name] but only when a gear is selected. Neutral means no gear is selected and the engine is literally disconnected from the wheels. So if you spin the wheels when it isn't in gear you cannot cause the crankshaft to turn

No, one tire will spin.

Edit that is the answer to the question.

Regardless of what gear it's in, one tire spins. That's it. It takes two people to spin anything past the differential inputs.

If you left it in 2nd or 3rd and have a friend spin the other tire tire at the same time, in theory, it would rotate the crank.

If you took the plugs out you could do it easily..

Edit. That's how you can make it spin.