Wanted to close the loop on this, for anyone searching in the future. Dropped the trans again, and I installed two standard ⅜" washers under the pivot ball and its washer (3 washers total). That almost totally fixed my problem. There is still a hint of clutch engagement with the pedal depressed, but way better than before. If I had to do it again, I would've installed a ⅜" UNC nut under the pivot ball. Even with it spaced out, I confirmed with a horoscope that there is plenty of room between the pressure plate and clutch fork at full disengagement. Cheers!

 

I think I am having the same issue, and am using pretty much the same parts except for a different brand flywheel and it's on a 4.7 instead of a 5.2. Was your clutch grabbing right off the floor as well (before you added washers to shim the pivot ball)? How did you determine you still had some clutch drag when your foot was fully on the clutch pedal? I'm getting ready to take mine apart again to add some shims to the pivot ball.

 

what did you find out?

 

The 12” clutch needs shims behind the pivot ball to work properly. The 11” clutch works like it should with just the factory single washer behind the pivot ball. Also, a 2001 4.7 flywheel works just fine on a 2000 - no parts site was able to verify that but I tried it and it worked just fine. Also, verify that your clutch fork is installed with the correct orientation. I have a thread on here with more info on what I did; but these are the highlights.