Steering couple not reaching

The plastic pins you see don't hold anything in place, it's just part of the manufacturing process where the plastic is injected between the two shafts, the plastic that gets melted between the shafts is what holds them together.
Try loosening the column from the under the dash and at the firewall and see if you can slide the whole thing closer to the steering box, you halfway on the steering box so the master spline is lined up.