Sean,If you have your clutch adjusted correctly you should have about 1 inch of travel before you feel any resistance when depressing clutch.Adjusting the linkage out any further won't help it release any better and can damage release brg.Although not syncronized,if you depress clutch and stop tractor,you should be able to shift without grinding.If not ,springs are probably broken on pressure plate.Fairly common problem.Tractor will have to be split to replace clutch,but its not that bad and you'll learn a lot about your tractor.