I rebuilt my splined shafts yesterday. To get the socket to seat properly, I had to tap it in with a hammer (lightly). After the initial fit I was able to fit the socket without tapping. Here are some pics.
I tried to line up the splined shafts so they would enter the hub with the least amount of rotation. As you work your way around inserting each position of the splined shaft it requires more or less rotation until you find the one that has almost no perceptible CCW movement before entering. I made a short youtube video showing this principle. It should make it really hard to get the camshaft past the maximum retard position.
Here is a pic of inserting the a splined gear. I actually inserted it farther, I was just showing the mark. You can also see the mark on the exhaust sprocket that made reassembling my chain easy.
I aslo got into timing my engine. I had everything lined up perfectly until I had to rotate one revolution to tighten the last few hub bolts. My timing wasn't off by much, but I decided to try again.
Today I tried lifting my engine to give enough clearance to install the vanos with the splined gears attached per the Beisan and new BMW procedures. Bottom line is the engine will not lift high enough to get clearance. So, I'll be doing it per TIS directions again trying to get it correct. I have noticed that depending on which TIS procedure you use, the torque varies on the hub bolts. In the adjusting camshaft timing procedure it is 10 nm (7 ftlbs). In the replacing camshaft procedure it is 14 nm (10 ftlbs). I'll be sure to post what ends up working for me.