Posted: 4/28/2013 7:51:21 PM EDT
| My thumb safety is spongy/draggy/sticky/grindy when I engage it, but clicks nicely when I disengage it. I took the pistol apart and reassembled it to make sure nothing was binding. There does appear to be a raised and flattened area on the end of the plunger that presses against the safety, but I'm not sure if that is significant. Is the culprit something internal (something I'm overlooking when reassembling), or should I grind down the plunger until it is consistently rounded? |
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Sounds like the engagement between the sear and safety block is wearing. I'd say have a smith take a look at it.
The plunger that presses against the safety is primarily there to hold the safety in the "off" position... some safeties even have a dimple for the plunger to sit in. |
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A rounded plunger is the ideal. Yours may be made from softer steel if the tip is flattened, worn, or scratched up.
A good closeup photo of the installed safety might help. You can remove the plunger and spring assembly to see if there is any dragging or mushiness present without it. The plunger's interaction with the safety is responsible for 90% of the "feel" of the safety. |
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Well, I lightly stoned some of the rough rubbing/dragging areas and it smoothed up some of the functions. I also rounded the end of the plunger and alleviated the stickiness. Here's the rub: with the captivating pin inserted into the back of the mainspring housing (and the mainspring housing pin removed) and pushing the mainspring housing generally into place with my other thumb, the safety clicked on and off crisply. Then I added the mainspring housing pin and pulled out the captivating pin and it was back to mushy on and click off. What's the problem?
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Quoted:
Well, I lightly stoned some of the rough rubbing/dragging areas and it smoothed up some of the functions. I also rounded the end of the plunger and alleviated the stickiness. Here's the rub: with the captivating pin inserted into the back of the mainspring housing (and the mainspring housing pin removed) and pushing the mainspring housing generally into place with my other thumb, the safety clicked on and off crisply. Then I added the mainspring housing pin and pulled out the captivating pin and it was back to mushy on and click off. What's the problem? I only messed with the plunger spring of my Colt Rail Gun. It was mushy like you described your gun. It took me a few tries to put the right kink on the spring. It feels much more crisp than before. I have to shoot it now to make sure the slide stop is unaffected. |
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Just for clarity - you installed the Nowlin "drop-in" trigger job kit and it required no fitting for your 1911 - you used your original safety (which worked perfectly on your old parts), you are symptomatically describing an ill fitting thumb safety, you changed a lot of parts out with that "drop-in" kit and you have introduced a lot of variables to the working surfaces of the safety, there are several critical surfaces in play here , namely: the frame clearance notch ( which should be fine - its the same safety), the sear clearing area , the sear engagement area and the hammer clearing area - the last three are all suspect because you have changed the corresponding components.
Suggest you remove the grip safety and reassemble the other components - looking through the back of the frame you will be able to identify what the safety is rubbing on and you will be able to rectify - more than likely the new hammer is rubbing on it , use sharpie on the safety to see exactly where to remove metal , go slow - one to many passes with a file and you will be out a safety - once you got it right and before you use live ammo perform all safety tests to ensure correct functionality Two suggestions - buy Kuhnhausen's books and read up on the procedure or take it to a gunsmith if you have never done this before, you don't want a non functioning safety |
| Right. That's why I'm baffled. If the mainspring captivating pin is in, but the mainspring housing pin is not, and the mainspring housing assembly is pushed into place, it works beautifully. That would lead my to think it had something to do with the plunger, but that doesn't make sense. I'll revisit the leaf spring and take a look at the hammer/thumb safety area as you suggested. It fires fine. |
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Well I give up. I stoned off quite a bit off the sear where the grip safety contacts it. Same problem. When I have light pressure from the mainspring, the safety clicks on just fine. When the mainspring pushes on the hammer strut full power, it "grinds" on.
I just don't get it. 
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The safety only blocks the sear, you need to remove more metal of the single flat side of the safety that engages the sear leg (file metal off the safety not the sear) , take a sharpie and color the safety with it , reassemble the gun no need for the grip safety , install the mainspring housing properly, cock hammer and push safety on , now disassemble - pull the safety and you will see where the sear has removed the sharpie, this is where you need to remove metal - take it easy a few strokes with the file .... re-sharpie, reassemble, check function , rinse repeat etc -
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