Ball lock hose connector missing a piece?

I just kegged two brews! Before I did, I took a part the beer side ball lock connectors to clean them, and I think I heard a piece fall out when I disassembled one. I couldn't find anything, so I thought maybe it was nothing, but lo and behold, when I put it back together and tried to connect it to my keg, it wouldn't connect! I took it off and looked at it, and the center pin was crooked:

These are the two internal parts:


Does anyone have any idea what piece I could be missing? I'm thinking it's maybe a hollow cylinder to hold the post straight, or maybe another little peg or something that goes between them. Oh, and I have the spring for this, but it's not in the second photo.

I tried googling to find an image of what the internal structure is supposed to look like, but I couldn't find anything. Any ideas, or links to diagrams? Thanks.

Looks like you may have put the clear "pin" in upside down. The black, built-in o-ring on the pin goes toward the keg. There's only five parts: body, cap, cap o-ring, spring, and clear pin with built in o-ring.

Yeah, that's what I thought at first, but when I turned it around, it didn't seem to want to engage at all, like the other end was too short to reach the post. I might try that again just to be sure though.

This entire thing is a humiliating fiasco. I hesitate to even fully explain what happened, but, it's kinda funny, and maybe someone else will learn from my mistakes.

When I initially took apart the connector piece, a little part of the black twist-on cap broke. That's what I heard clatter to the ground. I cleaned the parts and put it back together, apparently backwards. That was the first mistake. When I was attaching the gas and beer hoses, somehow, I got them reversed. Mistake two. I didn't think it was physically possible, but the gas line connected to the outgoing beer post. Then the beer connector didn't want to go on the gas post. That's when I posted my initial message here. During the process of taking the pictures for the post, I did actually lose the damn spring. Mistake three.

Luckily, I got out of work early today, and stopped at the LHBS and picked up a new connector. When I got home, I removed the guts from it and just put them my original connector. Trying to connect it was when I finally realized the hoses were backwards. I got them switched, and when I got the beer line connected, I realized the picnic tap wasn't fully inserted into the other end of the hose, so it was squirting beer. I disconnected the hose from the keg again and was able to jam the tap all the way back in. Finally, I got it all hooked up right. Amazingly, despite the hoses being backwards, the keg was fully carbed, and I am now enjoying a pint. So, a happy ending to all this nonsense. I guess this is the kind of stuff that happens when you don't brew for a year.

How much travel should the pin have? I can only move it about 3 mm.