Hey everyone, I dont post here often, but I have ran into a problem. A friend bought a Para Ordnance GI Expert. He wanted to do some trigger work on it so we ordered a full compliment of springs. One of these is a Cylinder and Slide light sear spring. We tried to install it, but its too short. The left leg of the spring will not sit on top of the leg on the sear. Its close, but no good. When you try to cock the hammer it slides underneath the leg and wont let the hammer stay back. Has anyone else encountered this problem, or is it just us? We tried putting a little bending magic on it, but nothing we could do would get enough length to make it to the right spot. Should we send it back as a bad part, or is the para not up to proper specs? Maybe someone here knows.
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We tried to install it, but its too short.
Is the tab at the bottom in the frame slot?
No idea what kind of gun you're working on, but if it's supposed to be a 1911, this may help:
There's also a blueprint for the M1911 sear spring in our Tech Issues section, 14th link down from the top. But as I recall, Paras aren't true 1911 clones in several areas, and this may be one of them.
Para doesn't respect original dimensions and the sear spring is just one of the areas where it shows. Even their spring is nearly short. I've used the Colt sear spring by annealing the tab and straightening it out a little to lengthen for Para's. I put the spring in a small can of water with the tab end sticking out a 1/2" and bring to a dull red a few time to anneal, allow to air cool on it's own and bend with care.
Well, we snagged one out of my uncles colt to test it. It was too short also. The para spring worked fine. We are going to try to get a Para spring and modify it ourselves, see where we get with that. The cylinder and slide spring worked great in the colt, and resulted in a 1.5lb trigger pull reduction. Good part.
The C&S sear spring is a current Colt sear spring.
About a year ago, I looked at a Para that belonged to a friend of a friend. Disconnect reset problem due to the sear spring chewing up the angled area. The disconnect was unsalvageable, so I went fishing around for a replacement. Nothing that I had would work. None of them would even physically fit in the frame and allow the sear pin to enter.
I have a strong suspicion that Para is purposely designing outside of specs so that their replacement parts will be proprietary, either forcing the customer to buy from the company or discouraging the art of tinkering via the use of aftermarket parts. Either way, I consider it to be a questionable practice at best... and dishonest on the other extreme.
Well, this is definately the problem. I went to the Para Website and they say you can order spare parts from the Para USA Parts Department. I'll be darned if I can find any way to contact them though. Anyone here have the contact info, or any ideas at all. I have tried Google and most other search methods, just struck out.