I had pretty much decided it was a visual thing more than a flight issue. Now it sounds like it may not be a big deal. The gap also got less after I loosened everything up and and re-thightened. The SE5 I had, had little plates holding things together. After seriously looking at everything though it appears I really do need to change out several of the turnbuckles. Unforutnitely they are a 12-15 year old style Proctor no longer carries. the eye bolts are metric so I'm still back to completely rewiring the whole thing from scratch; but that's the kind of thing I expect from a 12 year old bird anyway.

PS: bob I finally got the Bryant SE5a plans - just incredible.

Steve