A few things:

There should be a pedal travel stop located on the pedal box itself. From the factory, the stops came with a rubber pad (about a 1/8" thick) to stop the upward travel of the clutch pedal, and prevent metal-on-metal contact. Ensure you've still got that upward stop, and that there's a rubber piece on there. If there isn't any rubber, you can buy stick-on rubber pads from a hardware store like Home Depot.

There should be a clutch lever return spring, which is on the outside of the bellhousing and moves the lever arm such that it effectively raises the clutch pedal when pressure is released from the clutch pedal. This should pull the clutch cable until the clutch pedal touches the upward travel stop, and should provide some amount of tension to prevent the loop from slipping off the pedal. If the pedal is too high, increase the thickness of the rubber pad I mentioned previously.

There should be two places where you can adjust cable travel/length: 1) where the clutch cable attaches to the bellhousing assembly, and 2) where the threaded attachment fork attaches to the clutch lever. If you fiddle with those two points, you should be able to adjust it to get the travel you're looking for. Make sure you reference your greenbook to ensure you maintain the recommended freeplay.
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74 164E auto -- looking to convert to manual M410