basically the $* and $@ were expanding hte arguments by any spaces, as it seemed to take $1 - $x as one string.. so when we had $5 as "this argument" it expanded it to $5 = this and $6 = argument..
all we did was store each argument in its own variable and pass them individually..
i bet there was an easier version but it worked and it was quick and it meant the guy could carry on his work