Dave - I remember those going together really hard. When you do get them in, make sure they are real tight too. I didn't have mine tight enough and when I screwed the nuts on later to hold the nylon blocks the screws turned in the nuts and I had to start all over. One thing I did to solve the rounding out of screws problem was to buy a good quality rachet screwdriver with replaceable bits, and a supply of very hard, quality bits so they stay sharp.