Odd shifter problem, need advice

The spring that came out measures about 7" from end to end, from the inside of the curl to the other inside curl. It has some orange paint on it. I'm pretty sure I've got the good assembly in it.

I adjusted the pedal for whatever the FSM called for on clearance at the fork. There's not much free play at all. Your description sounds like it can be adjusted too tight, to where the PP can push the disc back toward the flywheel. I will revisit that and maybe dial a little more free play into it.

I'm trying to avoid pulling the trans back out and apart because I've got a car coming back from paint soon so I need to be able to move this car out of the way to get the freshly painted one inside. A rebuild wouldn't hurt the trans, but as I mentioned the synchros looked OK to me and the trans isn't noisy at all. It's just the aggravation of grinding gears.