Posted: 12/12/2008 10:02:44 PM EDT
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My dad owns a Smith & Wesson PPK in stainless steel, .380 ACP caliber. He called me Friday afternoon to ask me come over to his house and fire his pistol (again).
My brother bought this pistol used but in like new condition several years ago and had nothing but problems with it so he gave it to dad. I have put about a hundred rounds through it, dad about a hundred, and my brother, a few hundred. Ammuntion fired has been: Wolf, Remington UMC, Winchester white box, Cor-Bon, Winchester SXT, Aguila, and Magtech. There have been no FTF, FTE, nor any other type of jamming issue. Here is the problem. When you fire the pistol, the hammer follows the slide home and the safety engages. You have to thumb the safety back to fire and cock the hammer in order to fire the pistol again. This happens with about 70% of all rounds fired. Yesterday, I loaded two magazines with Wolf 95gn FMJ. The first three rounds, perfect! Rounds four and five, same thing, hammer goes home with the slide and safety engages. Round six misfired. Squeezed the trigger again and pistol fires. With the second magazine. All six rounds misfired (light primer strikes, first time the pistol has ever done this). Again, pulling the trigger and it fired, but hammer and safety do their usual thing, this time, for all six rounds. I told my brother when he owned it to send it back to Smith & Wesson and they'll make it right. He said "nah, I'll just give it to dad". Dad is just as stubborn and says he would like to try to fix it himself. 
I'm thinking of sending it back myself without his knowledge. He doesn't carry it (who would), hardly ever uses it, so i'm thinking about going the route. I would just like to know if anyone has ever had this kind of problem and what was causing it. Thanks very much for any help. |
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You didn't mention it, but I gather the safety is very easy to apply and moves up and down easily. Is this correct? You mention it extracts fine. This is a puzzle. The extractor and safety both use the same spring (just like the slide stop and safety do on a 1911 for example).
Parts involved are: Extractor, followed by Extractor plunger, then Extractor spring, the Safety plunger (which should be putting pressure on the safety to offer rotational resistance and keep it in place) and then the Safety. All these parts work together. If it were mine, I'd disassemble the parts involved (its not difficult to do. I've done it before, Google is your friend) and check the relationship between the Safety Catch Plunger and the Safety. I think this is where you will find your problem. There is a small indent on the safety that the safety catch plunger goes into. I suspect the problem may be an incorrectly installed safety catch plunger or missing safety catch plunger. If you are not comfortable working on it yourself, then sending it back to the factory is an excellent option. Please keep us updated. I'd like to know what you find out when its is fixed. |
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Quoted:
You didn't mention it, but I gather the safety is very easy to apply and moves up and down easily. Is this correct? You mention it extracts fine. This is a puzzle. The extractor and safety both use the same spring (just like the slide stop and safety do on a 1911 for example). Parts involved are: Extractor, followed by Extractor plunger, then Extractor spring, the Safety plunger (which should be putting pressure on the safety to offer rotational resistance and keep it in place) and then the Safety. All these parts work together. If it were mine, I'd disassemble the parts involved (its not difficult to do. I've done it before, Google is your friend) and check the relationship between the Safety Catch Plunger and the Safety. I think this is where you will find your problem. There is a small indent on the safety that the safety catch plunger goes into. I suspect the problem may be an incorrectly installed safety catch plunger or missing safety catch plunger. If you are not comfortable working on it yourself, then sending it back to the factory is an excellent option. Please keep us updated. I'd like to know what you find out when its is fixed. Correct. http://www.carlwalther.com/views/evppk.htm This is the mysterious "Walther-Macke" (kink). If the safety lever moves too easily. The shock of the slide hitting the frame causes the safety lever to move downwards - enough to achieve the decocking function. And thus the hammer goes forward... Some old cops told me that they simply "cured" the matter with a bit of adhesive under the lever. They where used to carry it with safety off and never used the decocking function. Because they knew from the Walther P.38 that this can easily damage the safety mechanism. Happend to me as well. Not knowing about this I played with mine always using the decocking function. Didn't stand up to it very long. Already known in the WWII era. Thats why the russians designed the Makarov safety to operate the opposite way. 
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the-troubleshooter, I had not heard of that particular issue before. I learned something new today. Thanks!
On mine, the over use of the safety to de-cock the hammer without slowly lowering the hammer with my thumb, damaged my firing pin to the extent that it broke in half inside the channel of the safety. I replaced the firing pin and it has been trouble free for over 25 years. Gotta love those Walther PP pistols. Mine is in .22 by the way.
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Thanks very much for the info guys. I talked to dad and he said he has disasembled the slide once before and replaced the extractor spring. He also has a recoil spring he bought from www.gunsprings.com/, but he hasn't replaced it.
I don't know much about Walther PPK pistols to understand the safety, so I will compare it to my Bersa .380. The Walther safety rotates smoothly and with little resistance. My Bersa safety is stiff and very positive. I used to own a Russian Makarov and it's safety was very stiff, more so than my Bersa. Both the Bersa and Makarov funtion perfectly, never a problem. My dad said he will contact Smith & Wesson next week and ship his pistol back to them for repair. When he gets it back we'll take it to the range and put a few hundred rounds through it. I will post the results that day. Thanks gentlemen for excellent tips and advice. |