64 dart with 4 speed with o/d clutch linkage question

Your pedal is/was hard for several reasons; Principally; your fork looks to be too short, but secondary is that you are likely running a 6-cyl pedal set-up with the 6-cylinder pedal ratio(*1).
Furthermore;
Everyone says that with the CF PP you have to remove the overcenter spring. The reason for this is to prevent the pedal from staying on the floor during hi-rpm shifts.
But I have found that on a system like yours, you have lots of pedal departure and do not need to push the pedal to the floor! So, It might be possible for you to re-install the big spring, shorten up your freeplay, and put a block or pedal-stopper under the clutch pedal, to get the ease of engagement you require. But you will need to stay on top of the freeplay setting.

IMO the longer fork would the first step. Since when you push on the pedal, the fork will be traveling away from the pipe, I think just a lil dent in the pipe will be clearance enough. This would simultaneously get rid of the zig-zag, but you would then need a new straight adjuster.
But I would also put a longer lever on the torque tube to get proper, parallel to the ground, push on the fork. That might get you enough clearance on the pipe.
The arm on the downrod can also be lengthened, so long as it's vertical travel remains in the window. By lengthening both of them,a like amount, the pedal ratio is maintained.
Together with re-engineering the pedal ratio, you might get it all working without the over-center spring.

*1
There are actually two pedal ratios; one for the 9.5" clutch, and another for everything else.
Yeah, the zig-zag around the pipe looks bad and the angle down to the fork is bad, but if you lengthen the arm, it will for-sure take more effort to push the clutch. So then, you would for-sure want the V8 pedal ratio.
You can modify your 6 ratio to V8 status by taking the pedal down, cutting the arm and patching it about .600 longer IIRC. There are how-to threads on Fabo.

You can get the Z-bar out of there by popping the horseshoe clip wire out of the holes in the tube, and sliding the tube over to one side. If you have to,you can remove the frame-end ball-bracket. Of course everything will need to be disconnected from it first,lol.
Reassembling it will be tricky tho.