Dusting off this zombie thread.
I didn't realize I left the last question unanswered, which is YES.
I finally got the silly thing to work. I think I tried everything including just putting on one of the pressure springs, multiple adjustments to the 3 tension nuts/bolts, and must have taken it apart and put back together 10 times!
In the end, I'm a little embarrassed to say I think it was just the fact that I was trying to test it by putting a bolt through the lever actuator lug instead of the roll pin it normally uses. Once I put the proper pin in, the lever was able to provide enough force to activate the PTO.
Anyway, seems to be working great and I appreciate your help. Here's the next episode of the long stalled out restoration series on YouTube.
https://youtu.be/1UnIOsZOTNc