how important is the inspection plate????

Now I feel weird...what inspection plate do you mean? Do you mean the little dog tag thing that has the numbers on it? That can't be what you mean. If it is, no, you don't have to have that, but that's a no-brainer (no offense).

What type of tranny is this? This would have probably been a good question to ask in Tech, but I think we can take care of you in Talk (just maybe not as quickly).
 
or possibly the thin metal plate that goes on the front of a T-5 where it bolts to the block...the shield. I forgot to install that plate (shield) before I installed my flywheel, which obviously meant that I had to pull the flywheel and install the shield and then the flywheel again. I think someone said they forgot it and just left it off, but I don't want a bunch of junk (water, etc) getting up in my tranny, so I refuse to run w/o the plate.
 
between block and bell.
does it keep the inputshaft at a proper lentth into the pilot bearing?
does it space so mcuh that the bolts wont keep the bell tight if u dont use it?

this case its a tko..and it seems te trans is loose even tho the bell looks flush and bolts look and feel tiht. the ting is,if the trans is shimmed up,u feel massive vibration like the input has pressure on it,,remove the shims and let the trans hang flat and it dont vibrate a hair

follow??