85 steering wheel installation

I am hoping that I have overlooked something obvious, and that someone can gently point me in the right direction. I had to replace the ignition key cylinder in my 85, and everything went very smoothly up to the point where I was putting the horn contact plate and lock plate back in. There is a spring around the steering shaft that the contact and lock plate push down against, and then there is a clip that slides into two slots on the shaft to hold the two plates down once you have pushed them far enough. The problem I am having is that no matter what I do, I can't push the plates down far/hard enough to get the clip in. I can't imagine that it should be that difficult and I am worried about breaking something in the process. Has anyone had to deal with this before? Can anyone tell me what I might be missing?