Definitely yours wasn't normal. We're you able to salvage the ejector & it's spring? The key was to have it compressed before your first try. When reassembling have the ejector compressed slightly and use a flashlight to make sure you can see "daylight" through the whole before driving the pin in. Do not clamp the ejector tight to allow it to rotate a little while the pin is going by the "slotted" area.
Good luck.