The tight end of the spring hangs onto the recoil spring guide. The recoil spring plug frequently flies off when a novice is field stripping the weapon. The grip of the tight end of the recoil spring on the guide (the part that goes under the barrel) is supposed to stop the spring from following the plug into space. Occasionally, even an experienced .45 aficionado who isn't paying attention will have the plunger escape, after which he moves every workbench, box, bin, shelving unit, and other object in his basement workshop without ever finding it. I'll take the fifth if you ask me how I know this? A fifth of Evan Marshall single barrel bourbon would address the frustration just about right.
1911's generally function fine with the recoil spring reversed. I'll take another shot of that fifth if you ask me how I could possibly know this, too? (In my defense, I will point out I was a good 20 years younger then; barely old enough to start thinking about estate planning.) The radius on the tip of the recoil spring guide barrel is deeper than the tight coils of the spring are long, so it should not be able to jamb and short stroke against them if the spring is reversed. This assumes the spring was wound correctly. I’ve seen any number that were not. Sprinco
http://www.sprinco.com makes good ones if you need a replacement. Recoil buffers introduce slight short-stroking without hurting operation. A major short stroke, however, would not only stovepipe the brass, but might prevent the slide from getting back far enough for the magazine to push the assembly pin up. But short of a bad spring or a really major assembly snafu, I don’t see where this would come from?
Most likely, when you reassembled the gun the first time you did not get good lubrication on the assembly pin. I like the Mil-com TW-25B lube for this
http://www.mil-comm.com/main.cfm?cat=Firearms . A common oversight is to forget to lube the inside surface of the pin's lever arm or to put a spot of lube in the safety plunger detent at the end of this lever. The plunger pin tip slides along this surface while it is pushed up into battery. Any resistance in this part’s movement, and the magazine follower will have trouble pushing it up.
Unless you are determined to preserve the exactness of the GI appearance of your gun, I would also whittle a Goldcup style lowered ejection port and rollover relief into the slide. These features help prevent stovepiping. Though intended for a target gun firing reduced loads, any feature that improves functional reliability seems to me to be worthwhile.
Good luck with the pistol!
Nick
