[Mrmerlin]

Sapientoni a few things to consider,
first adding any kind of lubricant to the splines will reduce the effective clamping available with the stock clamp so leave the splines dry.

Next loosening the flex plate isnt necessary just remove the front pinch bolt then the flex plate can find its home.
pry the flywheel all the way back after your done measuring then clamp the pinch bolt to 66ft/lbs use a drop of blue loctite on the bolts threads.

NOTE Prior to clamping the front pinch bolt the rear pinch bolt must be checked and re torqued as they are usually under torqued

NOTE ^^^^^if this isnt done then checking the front bolt is a waste of time as the shaft can still move forwards and preload the thrust bearing.

A quick way to check for engine damage ios to pull the dipstick and drip the oil onto a black piece of cardboard look at the oil in the sunshine if there is metal you will see it this is a quick way to see if there is thrust bearing damage.

TBF is usually attributed to the 32 valve engine cars, the earlier cars had a slip ring assembly