Update: finally got the two halves married for what should be the last time. Fought it a lot last night and after a little more fighting tonight trying to get the two halves to join I decided something was very wrong. Separated it again and took the input shaft out of the rear end and used it to see if we had the clutch centered, of course we didn't so I unbolted the pressure plate and had my pregnant wife hold the imput shaft and use it as a clutch alignment tool, ok that problem is solved this thing should fall together like it did the last 3 times, nope still fought us for an hour then finally started joining together although still not as easily as the other three times. Anyway she's together(ish) (the tractor not the wife) and we tested the clutch without it running and the pedal is wayyyy better still not in my opinion perfect but the slop in the pedal is soo much less. Turns out one turn in on each clutch finger bolt made a huge difference, I probably coulda gone a little more but with the adjustment rod all the way backed off on the pedal the clutch linkage and pedal travel are at least close to what they should be, and I'm not splitting this thing again, if I have to make a extension for the linkage that's the route I'll go as I think the arm where the clutch linkage connects is still a little tweaked, but I dont wanna try bending it any more for fear of breaking it., hopefully some time tomorrow I'll be able to post a video of it moving under its own power and hopefully with no extra bad noises from the clutch area.
Thanks to everyone for their input, without it I would still be struggling.