I appreciate your friends years of knowledge and his comments....

It is for sure a dilemma....the disc fits nicely on the input shaft.
I can move the shaft back and forth in the splines and in the trans input bearing seat (half the bore is in the trans and half the bore is in the top cover). The shaft slides freely back and forth.....I can't imagine it is binding on anything.

The pressure plate is an unknown.

The clutch fork and release arm are located in the top trans cover.
With the cover on, I think it is not possible to reach up far enough to the clutch to insert a feeler gauge in the gap.
(But I will TRY!)

I know I can't see up there for a visual inspection. And with the cover off....well.... no way to operate the pressure plate....