Finally got it all worked out. Yeah, I bought an old steering shaft out of the junk yard, cut off the ends and had a friend machine a 3/4 shaft with bigger ends that fit inside the ends of the junkyard shaft that I cut off, put it all in place, welded them up as true as I could and I have about 1/2" clearence now between the header and steering shaft. I really like them, pulls harder in midrange and sound mean too. Can definatley tell diff from the short headers. I noticed a bigger change from the gibsons to thorleys than I did from stock to gibson. Not to knock the gibson's at all, I liked em and I think they are a lot better than stock manifolds. As for issues with the thorley's, I just think I was a victim of manufacturing tolerances between chevrolet and thorley.