[Ron Wood]

With an original button and spring, inserting the spring into the button slot first and then rotating it into the frame slot is the proper way to assemble them. The slot in the button is curved at the bottom to retain the spring...the spring is meant to stay in the button. Bazillions of springs and buttons have been messed up because folks try to drive the spring out of the button rather than depressing the top of the spring and rotating it out of the frame. I suspect that is what has happened to this spring.