ok I managed to hook up with the dealership, I put a new cable in and as I suspected, it aint that.
And I should clarify- I can do more than a crawl with the car, but when I punch it it slips-badly. But I have been able to take it on the road to drive it.
So- I did NOT have the flywheel resurfaced, I just cleaned it up with a rotary tool. Is "step" the measurement from the front surface of the flywheel (the crank side) to the mating surface (clutch side)? So in otherwords if a flywheel was resurfaced too deep, The step would be a lower number than spec? Is it then a fact that too many times resurfaced renders a flywheel useless? I do not know the history of this flywheel, if it is the one that was on the engine that I gave to the rebuilder(never had problems with that one), or if it was swapped for another at some point.
Where to go from here- I guess at this point I am pulling the engine and barring evidence of oil leaking out the rear main seal (I have had this happen before and it felt about like this), next step would be to measure the step of the flywheel. If the step is correct, get another clutch kit.
Does that sound about correct?
and for what it's worth, with a new cable installed to the point where the pedal felt right, there was about 3/4" cable beyond the locking nut. I also backed it out to about 1/2" showing and had no pedal at all, had to grind it into reverse.