Hey there, we did the same changeover and found that a thick washer under the drivers' side motor mount helped, and we took out the steering column and rounded the coupler so it now looks more like the after-market ones you can get. We used a die-grinder and took off all the squarish tabs that you don't need on there. That coupler is grease-filled so when the lid became a bit loose, we used some 3M Universal bond and once it dried, ground that down too. Then spray-painted it black and who could tell? You wouldn't want to weld it cause you'll melt all the grease out, but the 3M stuff worked really great! We also installed a high-torque mini-starter which works fabulously! As for banging in your headers, well, good luck with that! We tried that first and not even a huge sledge hammer would made a good enough dent for the problem to be fixed! All you need is an 1/8th inch clearance and when you re-install your steering column, you can move it over a sixteenth inch or so to clear. Give that a try. Good luck!