Missed It By That Much!

One of my favorite lines in the Get Smart TV shows was the often used "Missed by that much!", but it wasn't funny being on the Maxwell Smart side of that line yesterday,

The weather was nice, so I attempted to install the steering gear box. No way...it interferes with the new mini-starter by about one-eighth inch. Checking a stock starter against the mini showed the dimension in the offending area was the same.

I didn't have much time to play around, so I loosened the motor mount bolts with hopes the engine would shift enough, but I only picked up a sixteenth, so it looks like I'll have to remove metal from somewhere to gain enough clearance. I suppose the easiest place to grind is in the motor mount cradles.

I don't know what caused the problem, but I think the motor mount pads are off about 1/8" toward the driver's side, and it has a 1/8" tilt that might also be due to mis-located mounts, though it's impossible to get an accurate measurement at this point,

If I had known about the close fit  earlier, it wouldn't be serious issue, but the gear box was in the refurb shop for a couple of months, and then the shaft modification took three months, so now, with more parts installed it becomes that much more difficult and time consuming to resolve.

It's going to be difficult to fire up my enthusiasm to fix it before Christmas.