windsheild wiper arm transmission

The other day my wife was driving her 97 malibu when the wipers quit working. I took it all apart and found that the wiper arm transmission was broken in many pieces(plastic), went to junkyard and found another easy to take apart but when trying to connect the ball shaped nipples onto the ends of the rods I found that I could not put enough pressue on them to pop them back in place. Any suggestions?????
Please e-mail me at Robh6287@yahoo.com.
Thanks to anybody that can help.

That should have been fixed under a recall. Ours was. Good Luck.
Kev.