Clutch replacement/Rear main seal

Jesus, the rust on that torsion bar is pretty bad! /6 torsion bars carry some fairly high internal stress.

Push the lever into the bell housing; it out to open up a tiny bit of slack between the ball on the threaded rod and level. If not, turn the adjusting nut to move it forward a bit. If the linkage is tight , then that may indeed be the slipping issue.