I know this, but the thought of taking it all apart and shipping it back and starting all over again kills me. And this isn't a good reason but I've sunk so much extra money in parts (just bought the Hobbico spacer to solve my engine fitting problem) that it makes me just want to get it in the air. Actually when I called Hobbico about this the first thing they said was to cut away at the plane (this would have been 3.5 inches down the side of the plane) then they said to try the muffler extension (which I just broke down and did). Then they said to send it back. I've taken apart the front of the plane 3 times now and put it back together, meticulously following the directions and the advice and pics from everyone here. I know I didn't do anything wrong, but I did have to sand down parts of the nose gear, use a muffler extension, bend push rods around, etc. to get things to work. I really don't want to have spend another $20 on return shipping, then have all these parts laying around reminding me of the time that's been wasted if there really is something wrong with the plane.