Too Much of a Gap?

[Hornblower]

You should be able to just pop that end in some with the palm of your hand.

The dampered weights inside the handlebars have barbs that make them hard to remove. But, they should just slide in further without a problem. Give it a try ....

Lo and behold, that actually worked on my gap. I don't believe the palm of my hand would have done it but the 1 lb. dead blow hammer did the trick! Thanks for that suggestion