another steering column puzzle??

grjammer said

You have likely collapsed the inner shaft. the plastic inserts you are seeing are probably just hole plugs at this point. If you changed from a power to a manual it would be short as well. remove the lower bearing hardware and retaining collar for it and try to extend the shaft.

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NO changes. Same steering column that fir perfectly before I played with it. Those plugs look like they are right in the slits where they belong> My issue is, even If I could pull that inner collapsible shaft down, that would make the solid shaft end protrude actually less and create more of a problem, correct?? My issue is that the solid shaft needs to move out beyond the end of the collapsable tube further, but I don't know how it can> Because it is bolted at the top end and everything up there works fine?