Tigerdude,
There's a pretty good chance that you've weakened the assembly to the point that it'll break once you start making landings. All of the plastic is there for a reason, to keep the assembly from breaking. Attached is a shot of how I installed the tailwheel on one of my SSE's. It should answer all of your questions, as well as how you can install the flying wires (support) without having to tear up the tailwheel assembly.

My 2¢ would be to toss this tailwheel assembly and start over with another one, as this one probably isn't going to be reliable now.

Ken