intermediate shaft problems...

ok i'm still workin on my ls swap into my 4g hatch and i got pretty much all the parts to get it finished..... but i'm stuck on that stupid shaft

I thought maybe the auto and stick were different... so i tried getting a stick one.. got one.. it's the same thing.. doesn't fit just like the other one..

the shaft slides into the tranny just fine, a ok 101% good stuff.....

but the part that turns on the shaft.. where the bearings are won't turn up against the engine block all the way.. the top bolt is about an inch and a half away..

it starts to turn up then hits the block and won't go any more.

is there a trick to putting the shaft in?

do i have to separate the engine and tranny?

i didn't have to separate them to get the shaft out.... so i figured it wouldn't be sucha big deal......



i'm very mechanically inclined so i shouldn't have this problem if it's all the right parts and such... i thought maybe the tranny was bad... i dunno.. thought the shaft was bent but i got another and it still didnt' fit.... i'm just frustrated from trying to get it to work for the better part of the afternoon. i don't want to put more stuff on the engine cause i might have to take it out again to put the shaft in it

so what's the trick to getting it in?