I know some of you guys specialize in 1911s so I thought I might ask. What would be the main/most common reason for the trigger to get stuck, but only sometimes? Fire a round, it cycles fine, squeeze trigger again and it won't pull. Rerack the slide and it will fire again. I did notice that the grip safety does not work. You can pull the trigger when it's not depressed. Another point to mention is that it must have a light hammer sping in it because it won't ignite Lake City match rounds because of the hard primer.
Check the disconnector for free travel and the three fingered spring under the grip safety. Also you need to find out why the grip safety isn't working. Is the actual trigger stuck, in that it stays rearward when the trigger is released? May be an out of spec mag or a bent trigger bow. The trigger goes around the mag and can drag on it if something isn't right. Is this a factory gun? Stock? Assembled parts gun? Home trigger job?
The grip safety may be the problem. If the 1911 was a GI and someone put a beavertail on it. The extension on the right side of the grip safety may be too long, even by a tiny ammount could bind up the trigger. It is stepped and you may need to remove a little from the lands of both the tip and lower step.
Oops I just reread the last lines of your post and like the kernel said I would check the three fingered spring and the trigger bow. A bent bow could also cause the safety problem.
You may be onto something, I dis-assembled it and that 3 fingered spring (sear spring?) kinda falls right out. It doesn't seem to sit in it's groove properly. The disconnector seemed to work ok when I took the slide off and ran the hammer/trigger/disconnector by hand. But with the slide off and the hammer lowered down by hand, there is a huge amount of slop in the hammer. Almost like the mainsping housing is too short. I'll pull one from a different pistol to comare them. When the trigger gets stuck, it's all the way out. Ready to fire but won't budge, creep or anything else. The pistol is an Essex 100% frame that my buddy built up almost 20 years ago. It's been sitting in a safe at his dads house for a long time. (marriage will do that if you let it) Now he's getting back into shooting (divorce wil do that) and asked if we can fix it. Of course we can!! So we took it to the farm to see if it would do it again. He upgraded alot of the parts from the original kit but he had a 'gumsmith' check it over for him and said it's OK. I don't know if the gunsmith did any trigger work to it or not. But the back right side of the trigger bar shows file marks. When it works, the trigger feels pretty crisp. One thing that I thought was strange is that it's a standard 70 series frame but he has an 80 series Colt Combat Commander slide/barrel on it. There is just an empty hole where the slide is drilled for the firing pin safety plunger. Could that cause problems?
The safety parts missing from the slide is not a problem. Try reassembling the pistol without the grip safety and observe the action going on under there. If there is tension on the hammer when the slide is installed you are probably OK on the mainspring housing. Hammer strut may be a bit short but as long as there is tension when assembled it will work.
Thanks for the help Kernel. The hammer strut is definatly a little short, maybe that's why it won't ignite hard primers. This thing seems to have alot of small, easily fixed problems. One being that the thumb safety will not fully engage either. I'll have time this weekend to experiment with swapping parts from my kimber and test firing.
Quote:
The grip safety may be the problem. If the 1911 was a GI and someone put a
beavertail on it. The extension on the right side of the grip safety may be
too long, even by a tiny ammount could bind up the trigger. It is stepped and
you may need to remove a little from the lands of both the tip and lower
step.
This might be part of the problem too! The contact area on the trigger bar is dented/deformed where the extension sits on it.
The thumb safety is bent too. The rod that goes through the frame is not square so there is a gap between the lever and the frame.
Because of this, when the safety is engaged, it's not locked all the way up into the slide recess. With the safety on, I can pull the slide back without much pressure. The angle of the slide recess just pushes the safety off and slides straight back.
Unrelated question.
On the Kimber frame, the hole where the takedown lever locks against the spring loaded detent is cut all the way out, like a groove not a hole.
The Essex frame is just a simple round hole.
What's the advantage of an enlongated groove through the rail, vs. the hole?
Ease of manufacturing. On the original Delta Elite 10mm Colts the frame started cracking there from the hot Norma ammo, so the fix was to remove that area. Kimber probably makes the same cut as it's easier/faster than a side plunging cut.
That makes sense. Looking closely at all the milling and time involved in one of these frames, it makes me wonder how they can make any money on them when they sell for so little money.
It ran like a champ.
I quickly realized the Kimber thumb safety wasn't going to fit so I used a Colt A1 as a donor.
I replaced the hammer assemby, sear, disconnector, thumb safety, grip safety, both springs and the mag catch (his was binding).
I had to use his damaged trigger because the Colt trigger was too tight for his frame.
We ran a lot of rounds through it w/ no problems except the fact that the trigger pull was a little heavy.
Time to order some parts so I put my Colt back together.