Detail Stripping a 1911

["DoubleAction"]

TBT; The hammer wobble is the space where the strut connects to the hammer, by the pin. I noticed the same thing with my Wilson Combat pistols. Your hammer seems to have enough pressure coming from the mainspring, which is common for the 1911, from your description of the pencil test.
Another tests is done using weighted dummy rounds, which can be purchased through Brownell's. Since I do not recommend dropping the slide on an empty chamber, this is the best method for testing hammer follow without using live ammo.
One thing I do with my 1911s, while reassembling, is lube the sear hooks with a small tad of action lube or any good lube. I also lightly lube my trigger shoe contacts, stirrup, disconnector & it's plate, put a liitle on where the contacts of the mainspring contacts the sear and disconnector, some of the mainspring cap, where the strut seats, and the top of the disconnector where the center rail rides. This is in addition to the usual of the rails, lugs, slide stop pin, link, and barrel bushing. Smoothing the top edge of the sear spring, where it rides on the wedge of the disconnector will add smoothness to it's function.

[MLB]

I've been following this thread silently (for good reason) and think that this is one of the best threads we've had here. Thanks for the info guys.

An aside: I received the following quote in an email and had to repost it here: ;D

All parts should go together without forcing. You must
remember that the parts you are reassembling were
disassembled by you. Therefore, if you can't get them
together again, there must be a reason. By all means,
do not use a hammer.
- 1925 IBM maintenance manual

[TBT]

admin said:

TBT; The hammer wobble is the space where the strut connects to the hammer, by the pin. I noticed the same thing with my Wilson Combat pistols. Your hammer seems to have enough pressure coming from the mainspring, which is common for the 1911, from your description of the pencil test.
Another tests is done using weighted dummy rounds, which can be purchased through Brownell's. Since I do not recommend dropping the slide on an empty chamber, this is the best method for testing hammer follow without using live ammo.
One thing I do with my 1911s, while reassembling, is lube the sear hooks with a small tad of action lube or any good lube. I also lightly lube my trigger shoe contacts, stirrup, disconnector & it's plate, put a liitle on where the contacts of the mainspring contacts the sear and disconnector, some of the mainspring cap, where the strut seats, and the top of the disconnector where the center rail rides. This is in addition to the usual of the rails, lugs, slide stop pin, link, and barrel bushing. Smoothing the top edge of the sear spring, where it rides on the wedge of the disconnector will add smoothness to it's function.

DA ... I didn't lube any of the internals like the sear, disconnector, hammer assembly ... nothing. Should I have? Should I go back and do this?

[TMan]

TBT, glad to hear you got everything back together and it is working. Maybe I'll be able to sleep tonight. I doubt it - about 9AM this morning my wife's teddy bear said that she didn't get enough sleep and why don't we go back to bed. We did - I woke up at 3PM.

If it were me, I'd go back and lubricate. I have one gun, which I don't recall what it was, but they said not to put anything on the sear. I never understood why.

As far as the Sig's are concerned: I've completely disassembled my P228 without any problems. The CZ75 I have not. I doubt if I ever will. I bought the AGI tape and he describes how you need two slave pins of a certain diameter in length in order to reassemble. Alarm bells went off in my head.

Well, its nearly 5PM - guess I'll go have lunch and then work on the MN trigger. I ran across an old 3.5" floppy disk last night, threw it in the trash, then dove in after it. I tore the metal sleeve off it and I'm going to use that for shim material.

[TBT]

Yeah, after reading DA's post I kinda thought I was going to have to. Yoi-vey ... watch that sear mess with me again lol.

["DoubleAction"]

TBT; Next time you disassemble it, you can lube it as well. I've found my 1911s to be easier to clean when completed detailed stripped.

[TBT]

Yeah, I'll probably just take the whole thing apart from now on.

Two more questions guys ...

Anyone know how to remove the external extractor on the SW? Will I ever need to? I would think I might if I refinish it not unless.

and

Will my Ultra Carry come apart in much the same way?

[TMan]

If it is like my Dan Wesson Patriot then there should be a pin that holds it in. After removing the firing pin, you drive out the pin which releases the extractor and its spring.

After you get it field-stripped, the Kimber should be the same inside being it is a 1911. This is kind of a sore point with me. If you have a Para-Ord LDA, it sure isn't the same, but they still advertise it as a 1911 - right?

To be honest, I've never done a detail strip on my little Kimber. I never had a need to.

Oh, since my post naming my 1911's, I remembered the Colt Gold Cup Trophy, which never really knocked my socks off like the Wilson did. The only 1911 that really disappointed me was the Dan Wesson. It jammed feeding ball ammo once, and I wasn't overly fond of its 4-3/4 lb trigger. I polished the feed ramp on the Dan Wesson, but I don't know if that really fixed it yet. (It went to off-site storage).

[TBT]

I can see a little pin fron the top and bottom of the slide that looks like it runs through the extractor. I figured that was all I needed to do but wasn't sure.

I've got 2500+ rounds through my Ultra Carry and was just sitting here thinking that the thing might be a little dirty inside. Especially since I run WWB exclusively in my pistols which is a dirty ammunition.

[TBT]

Okay ... new problem and I fear this is a bad one.

Was stripping the gun again to oil it up and get better at doing so. Got the mainspring housing out and when I did the sear/disconnector spring assembly popped out. Afterward now my thumb safety (the next step) seems locked in there. I can’t get it out no matter what I do.

So right now I’m stuck with a frame that has no mainspring housing or sear/disconnector spring and no way to remove the thumb safe to continue disassembly. Am I totally screwed here?

[TBT]

Maybe Jack Weigand can figure this one out lol.

["DoubleAction"]

TBT; The Thumb Safety is always removed before the Mainspring Housing.
What has happened is the sear and hammer needs to be in the Cocked position, before the Thumb Safety can be moved in the upper position for removal.
Let's try a few things to get you out of this.

Try inserting the Sear Spring back into the rear of the frame and slide the mainspring on just enough to put some tension on the sear. Then try to slowly and gently cock the hammer.

Another thing you can try, if that don't work, is shaking the frame, inverted, until you see the nose of the disconnector protrude from the frame, then give a gentle attempt to cock the hammer, while making sure the trigger remains fully forward toward the front of the trigger guard.
You have to get the sear to the cocked position in order to remove the thumb safety.
You can tie the trigger to the front of the trigger guard, with a string, to keep it from affecting the position of the sear while your trying to position the sear.
Can you get the hammer in the cocked position ?
Do not force anything but try to move the thumb safety up while shaking the sear into position. Take your time.

[TBT]

I took the mainspring out first the last time I did this too.

The hammer doesn't cock. It goes from all the way at rest to back all the way to "cocked" but I don't think its doing anything with the sear because I get no resistance and I get no "clicks" when doing so.

[TBT]

And my disconnector is protruding from the top of the frame right now. Its been up the whole time I believe.

[TBT]

Okay ... the hammer moves totally freely like nothing else is attached to it and the disconnector pops out when the frame is upside down and slides back in when it is right-side up.

What position should my thumb safety be in? When I push the hammer back (even though it offers no resistance at all) I can engage the safety. Is this where it should be whilst I try to put my sear spring back in or should the hammer be forward and the safe off?

[TBT]

Okay ... I got the sear spring in and tried to remove the thumb safe. It isn't budging for anything. I also tried to put the mainspring housing back on since the spring was in and I'm not strong enough to push the housing up into the frame. I don't remember there being resistance when I put the mainspring housing back on. Heh. I'm about to put the gun in a box and write it off as a lesson learned.

["DoubleAction"]

TBT; The hammer needs to be in the same position as it would if it were cocked. The trigger also needs to be fully forward in order for the sear nose to find it's position to rest under the hammer hooks. This will allow the thumb safety to be pushed in the upward postion to clear the frame. The thumb safety has a slot, between the face and the lug ( which works against the sear), which locks it into the frame. When the Thumb Safety is pushed upward, this places the slot above the cutout in the frame which allows the safety to be removed.
I have a section on the thumb safety in our MSN group pages, under Functions.

[TBT]

The hammer is cocked all the way back, the trigger is all the way forward, and the thumb safety is all the way up. I still can't get the thumb safety out. I've tried wiggling and pulling on it to no avail. Should I try tapping it out from the other side?

Why won't my mainspring housing go back on? I was just going to reassemble it and start over but I can't even get it back together the way it is.

["DoubleAction"]

TBT; The Sear is probably not in the right position. Take the Sear Spring and Mainspring Housing off again, the spring is probably not positioned on the sear as it should be, causing a bind.
I have some pictures I took of the Thumb Safety engagement to the sear with the Grip Safety Removed. Click on the Thumbnails for a full size image and Description. groups.msn.com/HANDGUNS/1911functionaldescriptions.msnw?Page=2

You might try shaking the sear into place while moving the thumb safety up for removal, with the sear spring and mainspring housing removed. Don't hammer on anything. Once you succeed in removing the thumb safety, we can review everything in order of reassembling the frame. Don't get discouraged.

[TBT]

I took out the sear spring and the housing and I've been shaking it around for about 30 minutes now. I'm getting nothing. Maybe I'll shake it a little more later on or tomorrow. I'm starting to lose my temper and thats never a good time to work on guns lol.