Do you take the maxigrip scope rail off to allow the compression cylinder to make contact with the trigg. sear

There must be plenty ofBSA Goldstar owners out there who have had the piston out to renew the piston seal that can answer my question. I have to move the compression cylinder to make contact with the trigger sear and then feed the piston into the cylinder and past the sear while holding the trigger on fire and pushing the trigger locking plate forward towards the muzzle, this resets the trigger,and underlever overtravel to index the magazine.The problem is the compression cylinder won't come down any further than the maxigrip scope rail lugs,it's about 2 inches from the sear. The compr. cyl. won't go over the top of the lugs, the scope rail is held by a pin, I tried to lever the rail up but it won't budge,I tried to knock the pin out but it wouldn't move, I e-mailed BSA friday morning 2.3.07, waiting for reply.This is the first air rifle I've owned so I don't know much about them, just learning. I took the piston out (bad mistake) to get the 4 spacers and washers out to fit a gasram