So in short, the problem is, that it appears there is only one way to assemble it, and also that it must be fully assembled first, then seated into the column space at the same time, from the top down, minus the ring, then the ring is attached to bind it once it clears. There is no way to "add" the small piece into the mechanism if I seat the mechanism without it first, because the red casing pieces are held too close together by the simple fact that they are inside the column ring. So it must have to be added in first. But as soon as it is added in, the mechanism cannot seat itself anymore, since that small piece sticks out a bit, and thus makes the column too wide to go down.
