Observer effect. I own a singing, dancing bullfrog, but you'd never know it.

It's commonly suggested that having someone else come look at things can be one of the best methods to improve your situation when you're experiencing a prolonged and frustrating lack of progress while trying to solve a problem.  I've found this to be true, though not necessarily for the same reasons most people would.  

In my experience, people may or may not have helpful suggestions to offer that you wouldn't have considered on your own, but the biggest value that a detached observer can provide is simply being there.  More often than not, once I've finally resorted to getting a second opinion, whatever problem I've been fighting against ceases to manifest.  I'm not aware of any conscious change in approach, behavior, or conditions on my part that accompany these situations, though that doesn't mean those changes don't occur.  All I know for certain is that I have faced many problems that were real, but vanish once I have an audience that I can look like an idiot in front of.

Case in point: the idler pulley bracket that wouldn't fit.  Fits fine now that I had a friend take time out of his busy holiday schedule to come assess the situation and offer his input.  I didn't make any changes to my approach that I'm aware of, and I made no alterations to any other related components that might have allowed some clearance, but here we are.

Speaking of that bracket, I mentioned before that eagle has a small spacer plate between it's bracket and the idler arm.  My suspicion was that this spacer wasn't part of the Gremlin's original assembly, though I found an image from an old parts catalog that suggests otherwise. 

I also dug out the TSM for the belt wiring diagram and confirmed my recollection was off regarding what that pulley does.  As suggested in the previous image, it's actually used to route the belt for the AC compressor so that it will clear the fan pulley/thermostat.

I suppose I could've just paid a couple more seconds attention to Eagle's belts when I was taking pictures of the PS pump mess, but that wouldn't have been a guaranteed match to how they did things on the Gremlin.

Right now I'm working on getting the rebuilt PS pump buttoned up, taking pictures of the modified bracket, and cinching things down with all that before I make the last steps in motor install prep work.  I'll get back to you with that stuff here in a (rib)bit.