Steering Column Question

I have a quick question about my steering coloumn. It is a column shift, no power steering column. I performed minor disassembly on it in order to paint it. Its painted and reassembled and today me and my Dad were going to install it but here is the problem. The shaft that comes out of the column that connects to the swivel joint ( i think its called a coupler ) has magically gotten like 2-4 inches shorter and wont allow us to connect to the steering box. It was installed and working before but now its too short. If any of you guys have any input it would be greatly appreciated.
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