JP,
While I was at SSR (BTW: Were you there? I was looking forrward to meeting you but don't believe I ever did-or did I?), I went back to visit with Eric at Performance Engineering. He was working on a car there with a problem similar to yours and mentioned moving the cover around after securing the damper; also that some motors/covers have locating pins which limits the amount of wiggle room (?). Either way, the procedure seems to be similar to to that outlined by Mr. Fixit.
Why's the water pump at the machine shop? What bolt is sheared off? Is this a job for Captain Easy-out?
Lowell