Just adding some keywords in case anyone else every has this issue and is google searching for the answer. I pulled a stupid last weekend and accidentally installed my throwout bearing carrier to clutch fork spring backwards. Not sure what on earth possessed me to do this but I did it and what you'll immediately notice once the tranny is back in the car is your clutch pedal won't fully come back up. It will come MOST of the way up but it won't make it past the fulcrum point to get the spring to flip it up all the way.

Your clutch also won't FULLY disengage, there will be a little drag on it due to the slave cylinder not being able to fully de-stroke (when off the pedal). I could have sworn I had gotten air in my clutch line and spent far too much time screwing around trying to find the problem.

So I pulled the tranny and didn't notice what I'd done, put it back in, dicked around with the slave cylinder some more, pulled the tranny, still didn't see what I'd done, put it back in (lol what the hell...), then looked through my phone at the measurement pics I took (the whole reason I pulled the tranny in the first place) and instantly realized what I'd done.

This is NOT how you install the spring...



Those little half-round "wings" need to face UP and should not go across the clutch fork like this picture.

 

Also of note, that rubber boot in the second picture has an ARROW that needs to point towards the FRONT of the car or it will put pressure on the clutch fork and cause engagement issues and premature TO bearing failure.

 

Man. I always figured it was a clutch adjustment thing, but you've described my issue almost exactly.

I still can't visualize what the problem is, and I'm not sure I have the time/motivation to pull the transmission again, but then again it does seem like a good excuse to finally buy a 1pc driveshaft..

Thanks for posting!