Great information guys, thank you, I wish you were all my neighbours!!!
When I get some time, I will dismantle and start again. I realized almost immediately when I was at the coop shop my mistake of stripping it all down and laying the parts on the bench and then realized that was a bad idea. A classic newbie move to have to figure out how it all went back together again.
I was also advised to put these little end caps on the casing which provided a small hole just big enough for the cable to slide through. i was told it would finish the casing and improve the connection to those cable housings. Does that make sense?