Park brake hook up help - 87 R10

[D13]

Redid a bunch of stuff on the rear end of my 87. To facilitate this i unhooked the parking brake. Specifically, I unthreaded the nut from the rod end of the passenger's cable at the adjuster, then pulled the end of the driver's cable out of the joining clip with the intermediate cable, then removed both cables from the brackets.

Did my axle work. Installed new brake shoes, cleaned and adjusted eveything.

Now, I can hook up the drivers cable, no problem, it routes thru the support and the housing tangs clip into the adjuster, and I can easily pull it up too install the end in the joining clip. When I take the passengers cable and seat the housing tangs in the support bracket, it is 1" to short to reach the adjuster. Before when disassembled it was 3" into the balancer and had no strain. How did I manage to either shorten the passenger's cable 4" or pull the intermediate cable 4" forward? And no, the park brake pedal is not depressed.

Only way I can see to install the nut is to take my BIG pliers and pull the adjustor way rearward. But when i release it there will be tension on the passengers cable and I really don't want to drivewith the park brake on.

What am I missing?