Talk me down off of the ledge.....

Just bolted in a Hi-ratio xfer case into my IIA- The intermediate shaft helical gear DOES NOT CONTACT THE INPUT GEAR from the transmission!!

What am I missing here? The intermediate gear meshes with the output shaft, and I even swapped the old int. shaft back in and still no go (literally). Is there a different input gear? Is the case different (in the spacing for the intermediate shaft?) Can the input shaft be cocked?
There is currently a 1/16th of an inch gap between the gears.

Does the generation of gearbox mean anything? FWIW, I can't find any suffix stamp (where should it be? How big is it?)

Thanks for the help, I don't thinks there is a Solihull Crisis hotline...

-hackneyed1