Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - beckett afg electrode question

beckett afg oil burner with F-3 head. two good dealers showed me the same replacement electrode. the insulator is 3 1/4 inch long. the distance from the insulator to the tip of the elctrode is 1 1/4 inches; from the bend to the tip is 1 inch.
after i set the "n" at 1/16, and the gap at 5/32, the tips are supposed to be 5/16 above the centerline of the nozzle. this is not possible with these electrodes and a 5/32 gap. the best i can get is just under 4/16. it seems that the length from the bend to the tip is simply too long.
one solution would be to bend the electrodes until the gap is 5/32 and the rise is 5/16. wow, this seems risky. another solution is not to worry about the rise above the nozzle as long as it is about 4/16. but i don't want to louse things up. i have contacted beckett about this problem but have not yet heard an answer back.
how important is the tip rise above the nozzle centerline??
will it hurt anything to slightly bend the electrodes to conform to the suggested specifications?? any ideas???

The specs are important so the flame will come on quiet.
Go ahead and bent the electrodes slightly. Be sure to use two sets of pliers and don't stress the insulators

sounds like good advice. thanks for the help. i didn't think of the two pliers.