2004 fuel filter inner clip ring

I have an 04 explorer that had never had a fuel filter change. The compression style (if that's what it's called the one with usually a spring inside it you use the tool to decompress and slide off), not the side that has the red plastic clip..

It was a real bear to get off, even with penetrating oil.. When it did, I noticed while putting the new filter on, a round metal ring (looked like a washer) with "teeth", or rather, 4 rectangles hanging down (well 4 were hanging down, one was going up) which fell out. The new filter was installed, explorer run for awhile to verify no leak, but the parts store says that metal thing was what they used to use before the springs were put in there. He had no opinion of whether it not having one is an issue, asked if the locking part on the outside worked, said that would be good.
I wanted to get on here and get opinions. Will it be okay? Should I pull the filter back off and can I buy something to stick in there? I'm not sure why one was facing up if the other three were down, it didn't look mangled of anything, like it was forced up when the filter came out, but why knows.. Anyone have any input on this matter?

Thanks!

I'm not familiar with any sort of metal ring that was used before the concentric springs. The concentric spring approach has been used by Ford for several years prior to the 2004 model year so I don't know of any reason some design used before that design would have any place in a 2004.



Is there a chance you could take a photo of this ring in question and post it here so we can get a better idea of what you're referring to?


-Rod

I thought I saved it in the olf fuel filter box, but alas it has escaped me. I did the next best thing and drew a high resolution rendering of what it looked like, rofl (seriously, it's the best thing I could think of).

Scratch that, it seems I cannot use the attach button even after being a member here for many years. lol. I will stick it somewhere online when I get home and leave the address here in this message, assuming I'm able to edit my post, otherwise see below rofl :)