Here's a '51-53 tank in need of alignment. Before the dents were removed, the shut-off knob could be turned down only about half-way and it stopped. The blue tape is tape there temporarily, to allow the aligning bar to be turned in slowly, but like a lug wrench. Use WD-40 on the threaded end.
The bar is first used with the thick "alignment" position to tighten against the lower collar (which acts as a spacer-stop. Don't pay attention to the
*thru-hole in the spacer.) Wherever direction the bar-end points, will indicate
how far off the top of the bar may be, in alignment with the top tank hole. (See pic below).
[
* V-Twin though it better to keep the "alignment/spacing" bar intact with the aligning bar by peeing both ends. As OEM, the bar was originally removable, and threaded through the spacing-sleeve holes you see. And probably, a lot of bars got lost back in the day.
The loss of
rod height reach into the tank interior (approx 1/4", by not utilizing the thru-holes for the bar), does not affect the visual readability of seeing the end of the alignment bar direction. So here, imo, V-Twin improved on the original design]
I have a min-mag light beam focused on the
top of the threaded end of the alignment bar. You can see how much I need to bend the alignment bar at the bottom, in order to (and move the bar to the right) line the hole up.
The crossbar (in
alignment position), allows a goodly amount of leverage. You can dial the hole alignment in, until the threaded (pilot)-T can be turned into the alignment bar and bottomed out by hand. Sweet :!:
Then, back the alignment bar off and let the collar move up so you can slide the crossbar to "Spacing". Then turn the alignment bar in again until the collar seats again. Turn the small (pilot)-T inward some more, until it bottoms out again. Now tighten the "Spacing" crossbar
tight. Notice that the
end of the spacing rod is making even contact with the bottom edge of the collar.
At this point the upper and lower tank holes are lined up.
Replica Panhead kits 
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