i mated the trans to the engine and as you can see in the pic, the clutch release fork exits the hole in about the middle. the throw-out bearing is in contact with the pressure plate as the fork is pivoted on the mounting ball to make the bearing contact the plate. i need to know how much in distance, the fork must travel to release the clutch. i think it needs more throw distance than it has now and now is the time to shim up the pivot ball before the installation. when i separated the other tranny from the other engine, i had to get the socket for the nut for the stud for the lower tranny mount "around" the end of the fork, that is, the end of the fork was farther toward the engine with less clearance for the socket. your help is appreciated.

From post I've seen in this Search (there's a hyper link here) seems that 1/2 inch of freeplay is what you need, there are other posts who say that the same freeplay should be 20mm, try both and see what you are confortable with.

I for one would really like to see a nice write-up on this subject in the classic section.

IMHO, you will need as much throw distance as you can get.

so many people have clutch engagement/release issues (grinding into 1st/reverse).

Brad gave me a checklist in a thread HERE. Just scroll to the bottom.

I just searched clutch fork using my name as a third search criteria.
HERE. Lots of threads and resources.

In addition check to make sure the engine/tranny bolts are tight.

Best of luck.