Hydro Clutch Conversion Problems

[Mattman2010]

I converted my crew cab to a manual transmission and used a 76 SM465 with a 80's aluminum bell housing. I also converted this all to a hydro clutch.

Here is the bracket I made.


Now I am having trouble with the clutch engaging. I am getting about 1" of travel in the clutch, but I have about an 1/8 to 1/4 inch of free play in the throw out bearing (I think, cant remember for sure). From what I have read it takes about an 1" to get full engagement of the clutch, but I am not able to get that, I need at least 1 1/2" of movement to get the clutch to fully disengage. If I extend my push rod to try to utilize the 1" of movement then I have no free play left on the throw out bearing and will be replacing them all the time. Is there a problem with my hydro set up the way I have it? I have replaced the master and slave cylinder and I got the same results, the only thing I can think of now is that the clutch pressure plate is bad. I would like to try to figure this out before I go about tearing the transmission back out of the truck.

Thanks, Matt