[eschaider]

I was looking at your picture again, PJ. It appears as if just raising the front of the engine could possibly correct the alignment problem. It is hard to say with certainty from just looking at the photo, but it is a possibility.

You want your crankshaft centerline to be parallel with the pinion centerline. That will involve moving the front of the engine upwards. You can use one of those Harbor Freight angle finders to set both angles the same.

When the two centerlines have a slight offset from being perfectly aligned, it will produce the smoothest operation and best u-joint life — essentially the "Good" image in my post#2.