Mike,

How will I know if this needs to be done?

I would bet it does and it is not a problem to do it and not exactly need it. Just put another washer under the pivot ball, and seal the threads of the stud of the pivot ball with teflon as two washers will not keep the oil in.

If your clutch arm hits the trans case before the clutch is released and the cable cant go any tighter without the clutch slipping, you need another washer. I think this is typical for a resurfaced flywheel.

I had to do this in my car -- put an extra washer under the TO arm pivot ball.

Wow, that is like what I was talking about

Shimming is not usually an issue even if it is not necessary. Not shimming will suck because you need to pull the tranz back off to then shim it.

From what I understand, shimming for the 'end play' should make up for whatever material was removed and would put the flywheel in the same position as if the crank were not surfaced .........

Ditto, If anything he will need to use more shim to make up for lost material..

Less shim, not more.
The end play shims go between the flywheel and main bearing thrust surface.
The machining done to remove the gouges moved the flywheel closer to the bearing.
The flywheel moved forward by the amount of material removed, thus the possible need to shim the clutch fork ball - same as if the flywheel was resurfaced.
Like Dr Evil said.

Tony at Translog will take care of the end play shims. Joe needs to determine if the clutch fork ball needs an extra washer.

Lesson learned: Take engine assembly to engine builder. Let HIM disassemble, evaluate, send parts to machinist, and re-assemble.

I wasted so much time and money trying to do all that myself too. Now all I will do is pull engine and tranny, seperate the two, and deliver it to engiine shop.

Machine guy told me he removed 15 thousandths (,015)

he said it was about the thickness of 3 pieces of paper