Picture attached. The barrel on far left and the one third from left are rotating in their bores.

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They do seem to be all the way down.
What happens if you try to hold the barrel with your finger and move the rack, does it move independently or does it still force turn the barrel?

On another note - I got my car started!

It turns the barrel when I move the rack. The plunger does not move independently.

hmm, running out of ideas. I think you need to try to loosen it more so that it starts to move independently (even if you have to hold on the barrel with your finger while the element rotates). Once you get it to be that loose, you should be able to use a magnet like it was previously suggested to fish it out and see if the little alignment tab is still there.