I broke the K1 repair kit!!! What did I do wrong?

[MarkM]

Just a few days ago I got a new K1 repair kit for the transmission, and I was fiddling with it, seeing how it works, and I broke the black plastic piece. Pictures would be better, but I'll try without...

I had the directions with pictures obtained recently from this forum. It appears obvious (?) that the white plastic piece mates with the black plastic piece inside the two springs -- the end of the white piece that goes into the two springs consists of a shaft with a larger diameter end, a sort of piston. This looks like it should be pushed into the black pastic piece (the cylinder), and lock in place when the white piston goes past the ridge inside the black piece. When this is done, the white piece can move back and forth inside the black piece under spring tension. The problem is when I pushed the white piece into the black one, the tip of the black one cracked!! It didnt have enough "give" to allow the piston to push in and seat properly!

It seems obvious that the white piece must be pushed into and mate with the black piece...otherwise, the inside spring doesnt do anything.

Did I do something wrong? Was I supposed to assemble in this way prior to installation. Or does it assemble automatically during installation when screwed in place (if so, wouldnt this have cracked inside without me knowing). I doubt if MBZ will replace this free of charge.

Mark