New Holland 268 baler question

I am trying to whip my 268 into shape.  On the feeder, there is a part called a connecting link between the feed lever and the finger carriage.  The New Holland part is a solid piece.  On my baler, it is two pieces, overlapped about 2 inches and bolted together.  I suspect the part was cut in two and put together that way in an effort by some previous owner to correct bale shape issues my running the feeder farther into the chamber, but it's possible that it is a part from a different machine designed this way.  I think though that it may be causing shape issues now.  My question is if someone can tell me the center to center length of that link.  Perhaps someone has a baler and can measure it?  The 273 and maybe others have the same part, it's NH part number  65983.  I just want to be sure that I'm doing the right thing by reconfiguring mine by putting the pieces end to end instead of overlapping.

Also, the cam gear on one knotter is missing part of a tooth on one end of the gear that runs the twine disc pinion.  Can I get away with that, or do I need to get it repaired by building up with braze or something?

 

Thanks in advance!

Mark

New Holland 268 baler question