I'm pretty confident all of my solder joints were solid. Like I said I tested everything thoroughly with my DMM beforehand. About the only thing I couldn't have tested was the connection to the diode pins itself, but those looked good as well.
I feel like you're idea is more plausible conundrum. Could it have anything to do with the fact that I left the spring in the housing, it started fighting me as I was getting tighter only a few seconds before it died. After that I took it out and just used teflon tape to keep the lens in place.