Thanks for the welcome.  Wish I'd have found this forum last year when I started working on this thing, it would've made life easier.  For the heck of it I placed a washer with the rack and needle bearing just to see if I shortened the length of the rack if that would help.  The clutch feels normal ( I didn't want to actually run it with a foreign washer in there).  I ordered a new needle bearing and a new rack and I think I'm going to mark the length that washer took off and shorten the current rack and try it.  I can keep shortening it till it works correctly.  If I mess it up (which is totally possible) I'll have a new rack to use.