Managed to get the new cylinder on the splitter, put my boy to work tightening bolts up on the pusher plate. The new cylinder turned out to be about 3" longer then the old cylinder, even with the rear yoke being 1" shorter. Which closed my 4" gap from the push plate to wedge to 1". Shouldn't be an issue. I only had the gap, since the beam was too short for a 30" stroke cylinder and I can fit a 28" split in the furnace of I wanted to. The shenandoah can only take a 24" split anyway.
I will say the cylinder fly back in with that 3.5" rod. Actually so fast, I stalled the engine when I first went to test it. Just had it off idle thinking going real slow would be good to check everything before taking it to full speed. Everything looks like it will be just fine and lined up good. I'll clean up and take it out and split some wood tomorrow after work.