There are two grooves cut in the upper shaft. The lowest one is for the snap/retaining ring....there is no way you have excessive distance between the spring and the retaining ring groove....that is why you have to use the lock plate removal tool to compress the spring down to seat the retaining ring. Without me seeing it in person, I can not help you any further. If you want, ship the column to me and I will fix it. Let me know.
I think I finally found out what's wrong. The canceling cam I have is for a non tilt it's flat, the tilts seem to have a dish so they ride up into the lock plate . Now I just have to locate one.
