I'm building a 1911 for my wife using a Essex frame.
I purchased a Wilson Combat value line hammer and it wont cock with the grip safety that I have.
I believe I need a different grip safety that allows the hammer to have greater travel.
I took the grip safety off and the hammer cocked just fine by hand, but when i cocked the hammer using the slide the sear does not engage the hammer allowing the hammer rest against the firing pin.
I thought it was a matter of proper sear/trigger fitting but i think the travel is greater than normal fitting will correct.
The sear is a Wilson combat factory plus sear.
Any suggestions?
Do I need a different sear, hammer, hammer strut and what about the grip safety?
Also I want to get a Kuhnhausen 45 shop manual but there are 2 manuals which is the best?
Hi BG, if the hammer wont reset when the slide pushes it back then the grip safety should not be the cause of that.
Is the hammer the commander style oval shape and the grip safety a GI version or the beaver tail sort?
In normal operation the distance that the hammer travels back and down is regulated by the slide. The hammer must travel slightly past the sear engagement to reset the hammer and trigger for each shot.
As long as the hammer is not in contact with the grip safety when the slide is pushing the hammer back then it really should be reseting into the sear.
If the grip safety and the hammer spur are contacting when the slide is retracted then really that means the slide wont be travleling all the way to the rear before it jams up and and alternate hammer or grip safety would be required in that case.
A few things to check on would be, with the grip safty out of the gun, rack the slide does the hammer stay back? If no then I think that eliminates the grip safety as the problem, in that case I would look at the sear itself to make sure it as the rotation it needs.
That can be checked by pushing on the "sharp" top edge of the sear to ensure the leaf spring is pushing back on the sears bottom ledge and that the sear is working in the correct manner.
My first thought if the grip safety is not jamming up the slide retraction is that the sear itself is stuck somehow and isnt engaging the hammer notch at all as the notch goes past it and the hammer just follows the slide back down.
Another trick is to set up the sear and hammer on the outside of the frame using the pins in their holes and see if the hammer notch engages the sear when the top most point of the hammer is level with the top surface of the frame. A straight edge ruler can substitute for the slide in that setup.
If the hammer notch does not engage to the sear top edge within the normal slide movement, then there is some adjusting of hammer notch location that needs to happen but that is a whole new kettle of fish.
I should have been a little specific when I made my original post.
My hammer is a Commander style from Wilson Combat (value line) my grip safety that I was going to use is a GI.
What I discovered when trying to fit the parts is that the Wilson value line hammer doesn't tilt back enough to catch the sear when it is cocked by the slide.
The grip safety that I have is a new no name GI type that doesn't make good contact with the trigger bow for what i think should be safe use.
You can lightly squeeze the trigger and it will over come the grip safety.
The sear I have is a new Wilson Combat factory plus sear. Ive looked at it under a magnifying glass and i think the things cracked.
Keep in mind this has never been fired.
I was going to use a new GI type hammer but it kept sticking on the sear.
Thats when I found what looks like a hair line crack in the sear at the sear hammer. contact area.
Whats frustrating me is not the need to fit parts its when you buy parts that are supposed to be higher quality than GI and there not.
Does anyone have any recommendations on what I should do?
Right now I'm leaning toward a NEW...
Wilson Combat Grip safety
Ed Brown Match grade Sear and disconnecter
I also don't care for the hammer strut that i have and I'm considering a a New Ed Brown Hammer strut.
What about the Books from Kuhnhausen...
Series 1 or 2
Quote My hammer is a commander style from Wilson combat (value line) my grip safety that I was going to use is a GI. A Commander hammer won't work with a standard GI grip safety.
Unless the GI grip safety has been "bobbed" (the tail shortened), or has had a half-moon relief cut made in the top side of its tail end, the bottom of the "ring" on a Commander style hammer will hit the top surface of the unaltered grip safety tang preventing the hammer from reaching its fully cocked position and thus not allowing the sear to re-set itself.
This may not be the sole cause of your problem, but it's the first thing that I would look into.
OK, let me get this right in my head and correct me if any of my assumptions are wrong.
Hearing all that makes me think that the hammer notch needs to be adjusted so that it goes past the sear engagement during normal use but if the frame holes for the hammer and sear pins are in the right spot that is also unusual but it can happen to miss out by a fraction sometimes.
I still think you need to try it all without the grip safety installed first, and also with the parts on the outside of the frame to confirm that is what is happening though before filing on a new hammer surface and trying to get the hammer hooks correct again.
Generally Wilson parts are good so to hear of a new sear with a crack would be out of the ordinary.
The parts you are using should not be giving you the problems that you are having.
It makes me think something else is going on to complicate things as well, especially if a GI hammer is a problem as well.
The first Kunhausen book will get you going OK as it contains general information, operational theory and stripping procedures [not sure if he covers parts fitting in that one as they are not handy to me at the moment] but both volumes will tell you every thing you need to know.
I believe the second volume contains dimensional drawings for all the parts if that is what you are more interested in.
We will get it going OK eventually BG :D Just gotta work out what the problems are.
Finally got a new beaver tail grip safety.
The Wilson Combat sear that I had originally purchased wasn't cracked after all it was some very heavy casting marks.
I also don't believe the thing was made right so I also purchased a new Ed Brown sear and since I like to keep those type of parts of equal quality i also purchased a new Ed Brown disconnecter.
Well right off the bat i realized the new sear was a lot better than the first sear because it actually fit without being filed. even the disconnecter seemed to work better it wasn't snagging the sear like the first one which was also Wilson Combat factory plus.
The beaver tail needed only the removal of the burs on the frame for it to fit and function.
However I still have the problem when I cock the action with the slide the hammer does not stay in the cocked position.
I have already checked and stoned the angle of the sear using the Ed Brown sear tool jig. I didn't remove enough metal and take it to the minimum dimension for a sear, but its close say within .010.
I believe my problem is in the sear- hammer contact area so my question is whats the best thing to do in this case, remove metal from my sear which is about right on dimensionally or remove from the hammer.
My thoughts are to remove a little from the hammer.
I was planning on pining the sear and hammer to the side of the frame check contact angle and then remove a very small amount of metal from the hammer making sure I didn't change the angle of the hammer spur.
Is this the best way to do it?
From that it sounds like the hammer engagement is not making it to the sear as you suspect.
First thing, make sure the sear has full spring contact from the sear leaf and is able to push the sear nose back enough to get to the hammer in the first place. If the sear is still hanging up somewhere then adjustments to the hammers notch or the sears nose is not going to solve the problem.
It could be that if the sear and hammer holes are not spot on correct that the disconector is not allowing full sear movement as well.
Have you checked that the dimension on the frame hole for the hammer pin is where it should be? It sounds like it might be a bit lower than where it should be if the sears movement is not hanging up and causing the hammer follow?
It can only take a small amount to low to make the hammer not engage onto the sear.
If the sear has correct full movement and the hole is a touch below where it is supposed to be then I would be confident that the sear or hammer engagement can be adjusted with no ill effect.
Putting the sear and hammer on the outside of the frame and checking how far the hammer needs to rotate to engage is also the right thing to do. Take into account the slight clearance between the slide and the frame when assesing how close the slides movement gets your hammer rotation though.
If you have a sear jig then I would be inclined to take a touch more of the sear rather than the hammer. That way the angles will still be maintained. If more is still needed, and you dont want to go below spec on the sear then the hammer notch is the next part to try to get the overlap you need.
I think your on the right track now that the problem is reduced to only one thing going wrong now.