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So I just got the car back together, it's a 97 LT1/T56 car. It has the stock flywheel that's been turned twice now, (although the machinist says it's still plenty 'thick' for what that's worth), a Centerforce dual friction disc, and an Autozone pressure plate.

Everything works fine, clutch engages and disengages properly. But, if you put the clutch pedal all the way to the floor (which is not necessary to drive it, the clutch disengages well before the pedal hits the floor), the clutch fork rubs on the pressure plate.

The previous clutch disc threw a spring, but otherwise the last clutch did not disintegrate in any grand fashion, leaving it hard to imagine that the fork is bent. I can see that the slave cylinder piston is seated properly into the fork, and I took the fork off the release bearing to be sure it's seated properly on that end. Everything seems legit.

Is there any way to fix it without taking the entire dreaded thing apart again? It's not possible to put a new fork in it without removing the trans, right?

Some really old threads here said they resolved similar problems by machining the T post the fork pivots on, but I didn't see any reason for the actual interference. If anything, the thinner flywheel (from having it surfaced twice) would move the entire flywheel/PP assembly farther away from the fork, right?

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I forgot one piece of the puzzle... I did replace the clutch slave cylinder with this new clutch setup. It's a different design- the original one was plastic with no bleeder. This new one is cast iron with a bleeder. I'm confident that I have the master and slave bled properly.

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It works perfectly except for the fork rubbing at the bottom of the pedal throw.

I'm going to put a rubber block under the pedal so it just won't go down that far. Seriously.

It's dead space down there anyway, and the only time I'd ever put the pedal that far down is in a panic stop where both pedals hit the floor out of instinct.

It'll be fine. Someone chime in and tell me it'll be fine. Everything is going to be ok.

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The clutch pedal has a stopper built into its support bracket. It even has a hole (for the original rubber stopper) exactly where it needs one for a bolt. I put a bolt in that hole and used washers to shim the head up to where the clutch pedal needs to stop so that the fork doesn't hit the PP.

I figure it's no more or less half-arsed than machining the fork's pivot, and this can be undone later whereas machining that pivot is one-way. Seems all dreamy now... Time will tell.