Drag link question ('84 300DT)

[diesel don]

The problem resides in my swaping in a new drag link and steering dampner (along with tie rods, etc).

I was not able to 'seat' the two shafts of the drag link upward with an air compressor due to no room. Whereas the tie rods were easy, I had to do the drag link by hand. In so doing, I appear to have stripped the threads of one of the nuts in an attempt to get the shaft up and all the way through.

In studying the old drag link, its clear that the threaded shafts went further than the new ones wanted to because they had a drilled hole for a cotter pin at the top.

What did I do wrong?

Thanks

dp