Okay, upon further inspection it appears that the fixed pulley cheek....wasn't so fixed. It's somehow slipped closer to la moteur....thus, allowing the moving cheek to ride too far from variateur housing.......FUCK!
You can see the silver score mark on the shaft where the fixed cheek should be located:
So, I'm pulling the variateur (a bitch job in itself) to take a look behind and see if the large nut on the back came loose...or whatever.
Stay tuned!
T.O.