McLeod Bellhousing Problems!

[R U YELLA]

I am wondering if anybody has had the same problems that I have been dealing with. I bought the McLeod modular shatterproof bellhousing over the Lakewood because I was under the impression that the McLeod would be easier to install and a better fit. Well nothing could be a bigger pain in the a$$ than the McLeod. Here are the problems that I ran into. FYI the engine is a FE 390.

1. Problem: The engine plate fit over the engine dowells perfectly. The behhousing did not. The bellhousing holes did not match up perfectly with the engine plate.
Resolution: I had to ream out the dowell holes 1/16" on each hole.

2. Problem: Where the bolts that hold the bellhousing to the block, the curve of the bellhousing is too close to tighten the bolts down. The bolts start to hit the bellhousing with 1/4" to go. No room for a socket wrench to tighten down.
Resolution: Grind down the spots around the bolts.

3. Problem: There were two plates that attach to the back of the bellhousing. One was a space plate and the other was the mounting plate. The instructions said that all trans other than the T56 need both plates. I installed both. I measured the depth and came out to 6 3/4". I knew that was wrong because that is why I had to do this whole replacement in the first place. The engine came with a cast iron bellhousing but it was 6 3/4" and I was told that was too long for a Toploader trans. So now I have to use only the mounting plate. The problem that I ran into is the plate has a lip all the way around the inside. This lip was hitting the welding marks on the bellhousing.
Resolution: I had to gring all the weld marks down to clear the lip of the mounting plate.

After those two were fixed I had to dial in the bellhousing. I was off .030". OK things are starting to make some progress. Took the bellhousing back off to install the clutch and pressure plate. No problem there. Installed the new TO fork pivot, put the fork in it's place. Reinstalled the bellhousing. Torqued down to specs.

4. Problem: I could not install the TO bearing. The fork is too close to the pressure plate diaphram. Two causes - The fork is hitting the inside corner edge of the bellhousing cutout and the cutout was not deep enough so the fork could not go any further from the pressure plate.
Resolution: More grinding. That will be done tonight.

What will happen next? Stay tuned.

Have any of you run into these problems? I can't imagine so. Let me know.

Thanks
Ed