97 Civic LX manual no abs

Ok, got the old one out, went and picked up a Cardone remaned one at O'reilly.

Put the outer joint to the knuckle: check

Put the inner joint into the tranny: problem

At first, it slides in easy, and then I would guess there is about an inch or less left to go, and it stops and wont go in any further.

If I am looking at the inner joint from below, there is the thinest part that has the splines, then moving away from the splines there is a thicker band, and then there is the housing for the inboard joint. Right at the point that thicker band meets the tranny is where it stops.... what am I doing wrong?

I even drew a picture. Big X's are the inboard joint, C's are the thicker part of the shaft going into the tranny, little x's are the thinner part of the shaft with the splines. Where the C's start is where it stops going in!

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Now with pic goodness!



That black line is how far in it goes, the distance between the black line to the thicker part below is about as long as the splines... do I just need to push harder?