Spirit clutch T.O. bearing

The factory built my 79 Spirit with an auto trans; I don't suffer auto transmissions. I swapped it for an SR4.  All 4 cyl AMCs 79-83 and 6 cyl Eagles come with hydraulic clutch linkage while 6 cyl Spirits & Concord use mechanical linkage.  Rather than finding all the parts necessary to use the mechanical setup for my 6 cyl Spirit, I went with the hydraulic.  2 issues with the conversion: mounting the clutch master cylinder in the firewall was a female canine and the fork was too far back in the side slot of the bellhousing to allow the clutch to disengage.  I modified the fork pedestal and ball by making it longer by a half inch, essentially moving the ball closer toward the flywheel.

The TSM shows that all models use the same throwout bearing, a unit with 2 spring steel clips which hold it to the clutch fork.  The hydraulic linkage has no provision for adjustment, so the T.O. is always in contact with the pressure plate fingers,  in other words, no free pedal is available.

When I was putting it all together with a new 10" clutch, I thought that the new bearing was a little loose, not a tight bearing and unlikely to hold up for a lot of miles when in constant mesh.  How right I was.  A week or so ago while driving at 30 - 50 mph I heard chirping, squeaking noises. Yesterday while idling I heard the same. From under the driver's sill, I can see and hear the T.O. bearing is gone in only about 8000 miles from new.

How does the factory hydraulic setup get a long service life from that chintsy bearing when in constant contact?  Can anybody suggest a more robust replacement?

tyrodtom wrote: I drilled a small hole in the clutch arm and installed a small spring that pulled the clutch arm forward and pulled the throwout bearing back enough that it cleared the pressure plate fingers.