When you say stock, do you mean those are the parts the car left the factory with?
1/4 inch is not nearly enough freeplay. You will be resetting it every 1000 miles. Maybe less.
Try 1 inch or more, And only push down far enough so that the clutch does not drag, and make shifting from neutral to first hard, at a standstill. My guess is with just 1/4 inch freeplay, it would be easy to overcenter the fingers which is leading to multiple breakages.
After the freeplay is adjusted to 1 inch or a tad more(exact amount not critical); check the plate departure, which is a fancy way of saying how far the pressure plate comes away from the disc.
To check the departure; have a helper press down on the clutch pedal, while you are underneath the car. Stick a feeler gauge in there,that is no more than .080 inch. Then have the helper let the pedal up to squeeze the feeler in there,between the disc and the flywheel or pressure plate. Then grab the feeler and rest a few pounds on it. Have the helper again push the pedal down, and have him stop, and hold his position, when the feeler falls out. Then go see how close the pedal is to the floor. That is as far as you will typically have to push to disengage the engine from the tranny. There is no advantage to push much further.
If first gear will not engage, pushing the pedal further will most likely not help.Either the tranny oil is too thin and the gears won't stop spinning. Or it is too thick, and the gears stop too fast, and the clutch teeth don't line up right. So if you are experiencing this, an oil change is in your trannys future.
Keep an eye on the freeplay and adjust it as often as necessary to keep it somewhere close to 1 inch.
You may have to attach a block under the pedal to remind yourself not to floor it. Flooring it, when it is correctly adjusted, just stresses parts. I'm not saying you are doing that now.I'm just saying.
