Well, after much pondering I May be on the verge of something. I failed to mention that when my "old stock" rebuilt original diaphragm pressure plate plate showed up, some of the rollers or pins were out of position and the diaphragm was askew. I don't really recall exactly what I did, but was able to get things back in position and looking exactly like the original pressure plate.
I'm now wondering if I overlooked something with the pressure plate. The check would be to reinstall the original....for some reason I'm not feeling super motivated at this point since I'm still guessing.
