This afternoon I again looked at how mine would sit in my frame (my tranny and frame are apart). Dane, what you said certainly makes a lot of sense: With that axle loose, one should be able to move it all around. There should be a lot of room.
Searching theSamba just now, I came across this:
Btw, Joao, did you also notice that he mentioned that the number of washers are variable? (He says to take note of where the washers are, implying variability) Remember our previous discussion on this a couple of months ago?