I did end up posting there also....after 2.5 days fighting with it, I did the following. Had it in in 15 seconds. I was just too embarrassed to post this. And it did not say to remove caliper in service manual....
First, I would remove the brake caliper if you didn't already.
Once removed, you can hold the rotor in its approximate location & the splines of the shaft should pass through fairly easy. Once that is passed through just rotate the rotor & shaft until the keyway lines up. Don't force anything, it should go fairly easy.
