You should not need to pull it out of the two holes holding it. just unwind the coated wire to the end and with the edge of a butter knife, scrape one side of the coating till it becomes loose from the wire then just pull it off. I scrapped off about three feet of coating which was about three revolutions of the spool. That gave me enough to contact the set screw twice.
Also as stated above, your board could be bad and you can check it with a meter as he described.
as for the clincher end, if your moor is working correctly I think you should be okay at that end. I have a ring that is through bolted to the clip that I attach my speed sensor to.