[B767 Drvr]

I'm reassembling a set of Showas from a friend's '00 CR250 after a respring and fluid/seal change. I've done this one other time so I'm not totally green. First one went together like clockwork. The second one, not so much.

As I start to screw the center bolt onto the damper rod (?) it starts clicking as if I'm adjusting the rebound dampening. After messing around with it a bit I realize that the push rod is not turning freely inside the damper rod, hence the clicking of the clicker.

Any ideas why or how to get it to work correctly??????