Reassemble steering wheel

'91 Buick Century, 90000 miles, 3.3L
I had to replace a spring inside the steering column as the left turn signal would not cancel automatically. All went well until I tried to reassemble. I can't seem to compress the large spring in the center of the column, plastic spring retainer, and metal plate enough to ge the snap ring back in on the column. Do I need a special tool or am I just a wimp?