[Bones]

I put my VERY first 1911 build together :thumbup1: and neither the hammer nor the grip safety will work properly, so I tore it apart and this is the only conculsion I can draw. Anyone else have problems with the sear spring hitting the frame casting and not engaging the sear so that the hammer will cock back?

Bones

 

[dinger]

just a quick check (i have put 2 together now and not had much trouble apart from some minor fitting of the assemblly parts) do you have the sear seated properly before you put the sear spring in I did this once where the sear spring went behind the sear this stopped the hammer from cocking as for the grip saftey I have had to trim the sides down on both to get them to move freeley, only about 005" aside. the fitting might seem like sucking eggs but I still forget to check the position of the sear befor I put the spring in and it still catches me out now and again.

 

[Bones]

Update.

Checked that and I'm OK there. I moved the spring down about 1/32 of the actual postion that the sear spring is supposted to sit and then bracing it with the mainspring assembly... The werid thing is that it worked fine after doing this. Not sure what is going on here since I already trimmed the area that you described.

 

[Merkava]

I put one together with a Kristi frame and could not get the sear to engage the hammer.I thought it was the frame at first.I replaced the sear and it worked fine after that,it must have been out of spec.Both sears were brand new but I once read that all these drop in parts are a mixed bag. Well anyway...good luck

 

[dinger]

I'll agree with that some of the "fitting" i had to do was with the sear, it would lock by hand but when racked theb hammer did not move enough to engauge the sear! so it was a case of filing the seat tip so it was short enough to catch the hammer.

 

[Bones]

That sounds like the problem.

Could you please elaborate? I pushed on the sear with a screwdriver and it would engage the hammer no problem but I put the spring in the keyslot that was cut for it and the spring would not push the sear down enough to engage the hammer.

 

[dinger]

when you rack the slide back does the hammer fall back into half cock? if it does this could mean that the hammer does not get enough pivot back to allow it to engauge the full cock i.e. the second notch on the hammer.assemble the sear and the hammer outside the frame with the pins holding them in there relevant positions to each other and then pull the hammer back to as near the same position it would go to if it was racked by the slide and see whats happening. you may need to trim/shorten the sear tip to allow them to engauge.Don't go too far as you may well end up with a full auto pistol!!!!

 

[Bones]

Its not an issue of having a sear that is too tight. When I put the spring in the keyslot cut for it the spring does not engage the sear properly but if I move the spring down about 1/64 below the keyslot the spring engages the hammer with tension no problem. Any ideas?

 

[Bones]

Ok.

I messed with it a little more today and besides destroying my sear spring I think I found out what is going on. The top of the sear spring sat firmly against the sear bar that sticks out and when the hammer was cocked back to allow the sear to travel the sear spring held the sear in place. Since the sear has to rock towards the inside of the frame it could not because of the upward tension of the spring against the sear. This in my mind can mean one of three things 1) Sear spring out of spec (change spring) 2) sear out of spec (trim sear bar to allow travel or 3) sear hole in frame slightly too low.

Any comments folks?

 

[Bones]

Solution!

Got my new sear spring today. This time I just shaved a very slight amount off of the spring arm that depresses the sear, not the "hooked" part but the flat part and it works like a charm now!

 

[Nick]

those guts in the back of the gun are rather tricky. I dont know what I f'd up on my first build but when I action the slide to load-the hammer only goes back half way. I have to pull it back the rest of the way to shoot-then after the first round-the hammer goes all the way back on its own, ready for me to pull the trigger again. The grip saftey doesnt work but I guess thats fine since the hammers only cocked halfway when its chambered for the first round. some new parts and i'm sure everything will work the way it ought to. after talking to rusty today, I concluded that SARCO is the best for buying 1911 parts kits. $160 or something for the whole shabang-less the frame. anyone know of a better deal? bones, good to hear you worked out that problem, feels good doesnt it?

 

[Bones]

I dunno about your hammer problem, but I encountered the same grip saftey problem. Turns out I was talking to the gentleman at Dare Gun Room and he spent some time on the phone with me telling me some of the ins and outs... he told me that something like 40% of the grip safteys today won't work, the top arm of the grip saftey rests against the trigger and when you push it forward it allows the trigger to slide into the notch below the top arm. He told me if you pein the top arm down it will usually work and in my case this is what I had to do.

And yea' it feels good to get something working!