cylinder rod comes in fixed in larger assembly

i am putting together an assembly of a can crusher that has a body and a cylinder. both of them are sub assemblies and are going into a larger assembly. when i insert the cylinder assembly the cylinder rod comes in fixed, it does have a limit distance mate to allow the piston to move through its full stroke in the cylinder assembly. this shouldnt be fixed in the can crusher assembly... and i cant find a way to free it or make the limit distance mate work effectively in the larger assembly. would i have to animate the assembly for this limit distance mate to work?

SolidworksAssemblies