1911 problems
I have an Olympic arms 1911 45 that when fired the hammer will not stay back. It chambers a new round but the hammer follows the slide back into battery. After doing a function check I have discovered that the hammer only follows the slide when the trigger remains depressed. If the trigger is not pulled when the slide is cycled it will stay cocked, drop the mag, pull the trigger and then cycle the slide the hammer won't stay cocked.
Should I replace the disconnector? What else should be replaced?
MOLON LABE!
An evil tree bears evil fruit. You can destroy as much fruit as you want, but it will always grow back, and it will always be evil.
Tear the tree out of the ground by the roots and burn it. Burn it to ash and grind out the embers with your boot until there's nothing left. Not a single spark. Not a single seed.
Should I replace the disconnector? What else should be replaced?
MOLON LABE!
An evil tree bears evil fruit. You can destroy as much fruit as you want, but it will always grow back, and it will always be evil.
Tear the tree out of the ground by the roots and burn it. Burn it to ash and grind out the embers with your boot until there's nothing left. Not a single spark. Not a single seed.
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Hello, my commander ambi-safety all of a sudden
started failing. Safety on,pull the trigger-
safety and hammer fall. When I take the slide
off all seems well, but any forward movement of slide
safety fails.---(fyi-short guide rod).
When slide is on safety fits in notch fine.[?]
Any suggestions?
Thanks ---Ron0 -
Don't blame the disconnector just yet
First have you had any work done to it? ,trigger job,sear spring? ,or a complete tear down ? ,maybe a few parts are in backwards ,is it a series 80 or 70?
First thing to suspect would be the sear ,if you have had a trigger job ,or an attempt of one ,second would be easy to check ,you sear or flat spring could need tuned ,third would be the thumb safety ,if they are not fitted correctly they will also cause this to happen
Now with that being said ,you stated it will only do it if you hold down the trigger ,try this ,finger off trigger ,hold gun in one hand and pull back on the slide as fast as you can ,and let it slip out of your hand ,and into battery ,this would point to the sear spring or thumb safety ,do this ,and reply
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OK, I don't know a whole lot about 1911s. The frame is an Olympic/Safari arms, I don't know if it's a series 70 or 80. The trigger job is an unknown. I bought it like this at a gunshow, but from the looks of it I would not doubt that the previous owner(s) tried to do some custom work on it.
I did what you said and the hammer stays cocked.
MOLON LABE!
An evil tree bears evil fruit. You can destroy as much fruit as you want, but it will always grow back, and it will always be evil.
Tear the tree out of the ground by the roots and burn it. Burn it to ash and grind out the embers with your boot until there's nothing left. Not a single spark. Not a single seed.0 -
Take out the the combination sear/disconnector/grip safety spring and bend the middle leaf a little forward or buy another spring.
Forget the disconnector, they don't wear out.0 -
Those frames can be pretty pricey ,don't care much for the slide work my self though ,I am pretty sure that model is a series 70 ,but lets make sure
Open your slide and lock it back ,turn it upside down ,look into the bottom of the slide ,approximately under the rear site ,you will see a little round hole with the firing pin disconector in it ,if so you have a series 80
As suggested above I would try the sear spring ,but while taking it apart look for the disconnecter to maybe be in backwards ,also if they put in a ed brown sear spring they can be quite tricky ,they have four fingers instead of three
When you disassemble it if the sear spring is not full in the bottom notch it would not work right as well here is a link to disassemble the gun ,since you stated you do not know much about them ,they are very easy once you have done it ,but you will have to take the slide off ,and follow these directions to get to the sear spring ,hope this helps ,if you need a guide just be patient ,no harm can really be done unless you break out a hammer
http://www.m1911.org/stripin1.htm
only spring to be worried about here flying across the room is the slide stop/thumb safety ,it is real small ,and when you remove the safety ,just cover the plunger tube with your palm ,and remember how it cam out ,if it comes out all the way
i just noticed ,are those keys grips? do they look redish brown ,and apear to be plastic?
- .... . / --- -. .-.. -.-- / - .-. ..- . / .-- .. ... -.. --- -- / .. ... / .. -. / -.- -. --- .-- .. -. --. / -.-- --- ..- / -.- -. --- .-- / -. --- - .... .. -. --.
... --- -.-. .-. .- - . ...0 -
OK, took it apart and bent the middle spring forward some as well as the left side one. Still no luck.
I think I'll replace the spring and see if that works.
Thanks for all the your help and I'll let you know how it turns out.
I don't know if those were key grips or not, they just looked like cheap brown plastic to me. I replaced them with some diamond checkered walnut and sold the plastic ones on fleabay. Please don't tell me they were rare or expensive.[:(]
MOLON LABE!
An evil tree bears evil fruit. You can destroy as much fruit as you want, but it will always grow back, and it will always be evil.
Tear the tree out of the ground by the roots and burn it. Burn it to ash and grind out the embers with your boot until there's nothing left. Not a single spark. Not a single seed.0 -
This can also be due to a bad hammer sear notch. Inept custom work often FUBARS the hammer notches and/or sear. Sometimes you can get by replacing one or the other if they have both been worked on, but often you will need to replace both. Start with the sear, the cheaper part. 0 -
Bigtire- Years ago I customized a few Safari Arms guns sent in by customers. Couldn't say they were the best mil-spec tolerant frames out there, in fact most were terrible, and their investement castings were soft and often out of specs. You will probably notice quite a bit of hammer and sear side to side play, with an occasional tight spot in the hammer arc travel. Many of the parts oftentimes were modified at the factory to make the gun work, and when you tried to replace parts (with mil-spec) they would not fit unles you ground them up some or "fixed" the frames. The point being that most likely you have substandard quality parts, possibly modified more than once by some unknown persons, qualified or not, leaving you with an unsafe mess. It is true that disconnectors wear very little under normal circumstances. It is also possible that somebody messed with it. Disconnectors are cheap. Don't play guessing games at repairing someone elses mess that can hurt you. Throw those silly garbage parts away and replace the hammer, sear and disconnector, along with the sear spring. Ed Brown does make affordable good quality parts, closely matched, and their sear springs duplicate the original "Colt" factory spring setttings. A new sear and hammer pin set would be a good idea too. If the parts fit in without binding inside, proceed and test. Two things you should be aware of is that the center leaf in the sear spring provides pressure to work the disconnector and return the trigger forward, and for average use it should measure around two lbs. of the total trigger pull. The leaf at the left side provides direct tension to the sear itself, and should have sufficient pressure to hold the sear in place without bounce. Increasing the pressure on this leaf usually cures hammer follow "if" there are no defective parts. The remaining right side leaf provides enough tension to push out the grip safety and its not critical so long as it has enough tension to positively push/disengage the function of blocking the trigger's path. Please use the information provided here at your own risk, since I am a professional and cannot take liability for information given here. My first recommendation would be that you "directly" engage the services of a competent gunsmith to remedy your situation, of course. 0
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