I recently bought a Springfield 1911-a1 fullsize, and took it apart to clean today, and I had some trouble getting it back together. The recoil spring will go back in, but exactly the way the book says it is supposed to go back together. The book says that the barrel link is supposed to lay forward, well, it was doing that the first few times I moved it, then it just stopped. I tried putting it back together facing up, and it went back together correctly, and dry fired and safetied ect prefectly, but it still worries me. I took a picture of the barrel assmebly as I put it back together....

http://www.thefragile.net/images/1911a1.jpg

Did I do it right? Or did I break the gun?

Looks good to me. The reason the link needs to lay forward is so it will be easier to align the link and slide stop pinhole. It might be easier for you to reassemble the gun if the guide rod is disassembled and the recoil spring isn't under any tension, or you could just ditch the FLGR all together and use the standard Browning design. Either way the gun looks good to go.

before replacing the slide release you should be able to look into the hole and see the hole in the barrel link lining up with the hole in the frame.  the slide release fits through the frame then the hole in the barrel link and out the other side.

ATW

Hmmm

I have a Springfield and I always lay mine down flat against the guide rod..

Yours looks to be about 90 degrees out.

Yeah, it lined up perfectly, just seemed odd. I'll take it to the range tomorrow and see what happens...

Looks OK to me. As long as the barrel cams down when you retract the slide, then the slide stop and barrel  link are correctly engaged. After I put the frame back on I usually turn the pistol right side up so the barrel link hangs down, then move the slide around until I see the holes line up.