Steering shaft universal joint., Did I miss a trick? Options

[Olympic 914]

Well I have the whole front suspension installed, but I didn't connect the steering shaft universal when I put in the steering box mounted to the lower suspension support.

Thought I would do that this morning...

Well for the life of me I couldn't get it to go on, there is just not enough play to slide the universal over the splines, so I loosened the steering box... still not enough, so I have to loosen the whole front suspension ( careful that it doesn't fall off onto my chest) and finally get the splined shaft to slide into the universal. snugged up the front suspension bolts and go to put in the pinch bolts for the universal and find I must be 1 or 2 splines off.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/hissyfit.gif)

So now I have to loosen everything again and realign the splines.

Is there a trick to this? maybe an easy way? something I'm not seeing?

Just came in to fill up my coffee and I'll be back at it.

I thought this would be a 5-10 minute job at most, been at it for over an hour and I'm still not there yet... and I will have to look up all the torque values for the front suspension bolts again


My plan was to knock this little job out and work on putting in brake fluid and bleeding the brakes, don't know if i'll get to that today now....

Rant over.