No reason why the motor has to be on the machine-frame; and anyway the shaper itself has nowhere to accommodate it. The critical point is ensuring the two pulleys are in line and parallel. This also allows you to make a rather better tension adjuster than having to use wedges!

Obviously also ensure the swarf can not enter the motor if that has a ventilated case.

Most reference-works I have seen on using shapers is the tool tip should lie below the clapper-box fulcrum, not be in advance of it, to reduce the risk of dig-ins.

You can use a tool resembling a lathe-tool, which is what appears to be on your shaper, but it was common practice to use ones swan-necked to bring the tip back under the pivot. I do use one on my Drummond manual shaper.  Those though were of forged carbon-steel.

There is an old design based around a bicycle crank that holds small tool tips in a miniature version of what you see in in your photo, on the end of an arm, to do the same thing.  This also allows the tool to be rotated to cut down the side of the work, though that can’t be an easy operation without auto down-feed.

I can’t give you anything very specific about your new Adept William. If you don’t already know about this? https://www.lathes.co.uk/adeptshaper/index.html It seems like the factory powered no. 2 shapers are quite rare, so that was a lucky find.

But fwiw, I can give you a few general tips I’ve learned with my own little shaper. Once you do get it back together, bolted down and operational, the first check I’d do is attach a magnetic base to the ram and the indicator tip as close to the rear of the table as you can get it. Then hand cycle the ram through it’s stroke and over the tables full depth. Shapers produce accurate parts due to how well aligned and unworn the ram way surfaces are, and it’s parallelism to the tables top surface. Then move the ram to the other side of the table and check it again. Those two checks will tell you a lot about what further adjustments or corrections might be needed.

Unless your very lucky, I’d expect to see some wear and misalignment since yours is at least 60 or more years old. My shaper is a bit more conventional layout with a ratchet and driven table, but either design works much the same. And mine has a factory oil pump South Bend added to the second generation of there shaper, so adequate gear and ram lubrication was considered pretty important. One of the most critical adjustments are the gibs, smooth with no trace of slack, but still without any tight spots. As a last resort, and maybe only for a very minor amount of misalignment, most shapers can be used to take a very minimal clean up cut across it’s own table to re-establish parallelism. Better would be to do it properly and scrape it back into alignment and leave the table alone unless it’s also worn or has some surface damage.

Shapers also exert a lot of cutting tool pressure that helps to flex the front of the table and work piece down. For that reason most shapers have an additional and adjustable support foot towards the front of the table. Adding something like that to the front of your bench and below the table would definitely be something I’d want.

If it’s possible and you have enough room. I’d also consider adding a 3-4 step pulley for both the motor and drive pulley. As a guide, my South Bend has 4 available ram stroke settings. 42, 75, 120 & 195 per minute. Although I’ve never used and see no real need for the fastest one, but I also don’t machine much aluminum. A motorized shaper has quite a bit of reciprocating weight, my shaper and factory stand combined weight is around 400 lbs / 180 kilos. Even with that, I had to solidly bolt my stand down to keep it from moving at the faster ram speeds.

I’m unsure about how those Adept shapers are designed, most other crank driven shapers also have a correct and incorrect motor rotational direction. When it’s correct, the ram should move backwards during the non cutting stroke faster than moving forward. And there’s also a bit more leverage during the cutting stroke.

Shapers are pretty deceptive and can be dangerous if you do something without thinking about it well enough.They can also be very easy to permanently damage. I never set mine up without doing a full hand powered cycle of the ram first to double check my clearances. Keeping the drive belt slightly loose isn’t a bad idea either. And unless I need to feed the slide down after each stroke when vertical shaping, I never get my hands or any other body part anywhere inside the table perimeter. With the deep gear reduction they have, removing fingers or even a hand would be easy.