I measured mine today and its at 10 mm. Manual says 4-13mm is good and some threads I read here say 1-3 mm.

I also experience the car bucking or wheel hop(not sure which one it is) every morning on the 1st 1-2 shift of that day with normal shifting. Its funny that it happens on the very first 1-2 shift everyday. After that I usually don't get it anymore for that day. Could it be my technique or pedal needing to be adjusted?

Could be either one, how many miles on the car?
And maybe check this out and mess with it, see if this helps...https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...d.php?t=260040

34,600 miles

I was curious about the bucking on the first shifts of the day. mine does the same thing. my previous evo never did this..any idea what this is? it also seems this evo's clutch at the end of travel...not in the middle or so...thoughts?

mine does it when cold also. possibly the clutch isn't warmed up or too low of an rpm before shift. i also let the clutch out slow ( habit from another 4 wheel drive). after it warms up, it grabs like a savage. still stock @27k. the cold adjustment might be out but you don't wanna adjust it cold, it'll grab different warm.

I wonder if its because I still have stock motor mounts? I do have an ingalls at the tightest setting.

ya mine has only 8k miles and does it first or second. Its fine after car warms up.

That bucking when you first drive the car is pretty normal. It also did it in my 95 talon with an ACT clutch. I think it's mainly technique and a cold clutch. I'm a bit more lazy in the morning and hench I don't give it enough throttle than I should.

Mine does the same thing. The car in general feels funny for the first minute or two. Once it warms up though all is normal.

It's all normal. That's how our car operates when it is cold and hasn't warmed up yet.