Was my STI Grip built on a Friday?

[whip]

So, in an effort to make my open gun look similar to my limited gun, I am in the process of swapping to a new grip. Easily done... right?

Just prior to this post, all is a cake walk... then I go to install my sear spring and it doesn't fit! It is too wide. I look inside the mainspring housing channel and I see a perfectly formed rib running down the left hand side of the channel that disallows the sear spring to lay flat against the floor of the channel (see attached photo).

I look closely at my old open gun grip and see nothing. I don't even see machine marks where one would have been had it been milled out.

I then look at my limited gun and find nothing there either. Did I get a grip built on a Friday?

[WidowsSon683]

My vote it that it was built on a Monday after a 3 day weekend.

[RangerTrace]

Either way, it's way out of spec and should not have left the factory. At least STI will make it right...

[RocketCity1911]

I recently bought an STI extractor that didn't have the groove cut out. Sent a pic to STI and they sent me another one. Sure seems like they have some QC issues on parts, but at least they are good about replacements.

[whip]

Thanks for the confirmation that I wasn't losing my mind. My only issue is that I had Extreme Shooters special order it, reduce it, texture it, and install high-dollar grip tape on it. A simple "replacement" isn't going to cut it. At this point in time, I might as well chuck it up and machine out the rib. Brutal!

[sfinney]

Some sear springs are too narrow to fill that channel, and have to be "peened" on the left side, to fit tight. Maybe they started making them to fit sear springs tighter?

What brand Sear spring are you using? I think SV are wider from factory to better fit, for example. Or not. Just thinking.

In any case, like you said, machining, or a file, or light dremel work, could fix this in a few minutes?

[whip]

All my sear springs are too wide to fit the channel with the rib there. They slide right in until they rest upon the rib. The rib definitely needs to go. The one I am transferring over is peened, which even adds to the poor fit.

I'll send a picture to STI to make them aware. The rib is so perfectly formed that it looks like it was intentional. Plus, it looks like it was injection molded. For the rib to exist, it seems as though the tool/die was cut for it. It doesn't "look" like a mistake. It really has me puzzled.

I am interested to hear what you all have to say and what they have to say.

[RocketCity1911]

I have three STI grips that don't have this feature. Two of them fit the sear spring pretty decent and one is a loose fit. I had to cut up a business card and put it between the MSH and sear spring to keep the sear spring from moving to the left. Before I reached that solution, I had tried several different sear springs and they all had that problem. The grip with the loose fit was a grip I had won at a match and it came from Extreme Shooters. However, I don't think Extreme Shooters had done anything to cause the problem in this case. I think the tolerances on the STI plastic grips are fairly loose. Yours looks like a manufacturing defect to me. I would send STI a picture of it and explain your problem. If it is a defect, they may send you a replacement which you can sell or use for another gun build. It's possible they may work with Extreme Shooters to get you fixed up. But, STI definitely needs to hear from you.

[AZGunut]

These are the new STI grips that have been shipping for about a year. Generally the front toe of the magwell area has been radius end to match a magwell as well. These were redesigned when STI had a new mold for the injection molded grips redone. On the old grips quite often the sear spring would walk slightly left to right and sometimes fall off the sear legs. This cloves that problem.

[Badkarma]

When I replaced my grip, I had to narrow/trim my SVI sear spring to fit the new grip style. A stock Colt sear spring was a perfect fit.

[Steve RA]

I'd suggest what Badkarma just posted. Pick whichever one is easier for you.

[whip]

Ok... just a quick update on the situation. I contacted STI and they responded as such...

"Dugan,

No sir, that is not a defect. We made I few changes to our polymer grip. The rib in the sear spring cannel is to tighten up the sear spring on some of the aftermarket sears used. All of our grips produced will have that change made to it. The changes that were made is not to fix any problems just to improve the product.

Sincerely,

Houston Baker"

So, just an FYI incase you did what I did and tried to make a quick grip change and run into a part change. It was an easy fix. I just dremeled out the rib, put the original sear spring in, and moved on.