Finally, a milestone.
Last night at about 10:30 I was able to wash my hands and go to bed. It took me about 1.5 hours to get all of the engine to transaxle bolts broken loose and the transmission mounts too.
Funny how long I struggled with the top bolt on the engine/trans bolt when I realize I could reach it easily from the top if I just pulled the snorkel out. Duh.
Once everything was loose I supported the transaxle with my floor jack, and employed my air ratchet to pull all the hardware out and get the mounts off.
Then I grabbed my son and had him run the floor jack while I wiggled and checked everything.
I'm calling it a win.
Quickly looked over my clutch (re: the issue of not disengaging completely). Was a bit puzzled to find the date of May of 2014 on the pressure plate, so the clutch had been "done" prior to me purchasing it.
Looking at the actuator lever expecting to see a crack I didn't find one, but there was quite a deep shiny divot where the tip of the slave cylinder pushes on it. That was probably enough to keep it from getting full reach. Funny how far some people will go and not do a job correctly.