Replacement Upper Ball Joints fitment

Hello, I'm having trouble installing new upper ball joints. After a tremendous time working on getting the old ones out, I've managed it. Ready to install the new ones and running into a problem. There's a ridge on the rubber boot attached to the ball joint. This ridge is too large to fit through the hole in the upper control arms. Can this be shaved off with an exacto knife? Looks to be about 1.5 mm diameter ring ridge around the boot itself.

I know, this thread is worthless without pictures. Hoping someone's experienced this themselves, and can tell me what to do.