Ross F-1,
I totally understand! I just went through the same thing over this past weekend. I took my generator off to replace the brushes. When I went to put everything back together, I had the same problem with the square washer.
I tried to keep it straight, but when your prying up in the generator with a bar, and using a wrench to tighten the gen bracket down, it's hard to keep the washer straight.
I thought I had it straight until I tried to pull the slack out of the fan belt the fan was hanging up. I ended up taking a cresent wrench and straightening up the square washer then the fan was easy to pull up.
I love my old 47, but the fan/generator combo wasn't one of Ford's better idea's in my opinion.
Kevin