Jump to content
Brian Enos's Forums... Maku mozo!

Phoenix Trinity Grip - Metal Mainspring Housing Fitting Issues


surfmaster

Recommended Posts

i have a stainless steel, agressive Phoenix Trinity Grip on my 38 Supercomp 2011 race gun. I love the look and weight of the grip and how it improves the balance of the gun.

It has a plastic STI mainspring housing. i wanted to change it to a metal one to add weight and keep the grip section all metal.

I tried to install both a Fusion 2011 and a Dawson 2011 mainspring housing. However, the cross pin holes will not line up with the hole in the PT grip. (The plastic STI mainspring housing does line up.)

I removed the internals from both metal mainspring housings and I'm able to drive a pin through them. However, when I insert the bare metal mainsprings into the grip and try to insert the cross pin, I'm unable to do so because the holes in the mainspring housing are misaligned with the holes in the grip. It appears the holes in the Fusion and Dawson mainspring housings are drilled to far back, nearly touching the guide groves. The hole in the plastic STI mainspring is further forward, towards the direction of the muzzle.

How can I fix this problem? I'm not sure if I want to buy a metal EGW mainspring housing as the same problem may be present. Do I buy an EGW mainspring blank and ask my gunsmith to drill a hole?

Thanks in advance for your comments.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello: Sounds like something is not correct with either the 2 mainspring housings or the grip. Can you check the metal mainspring housings on a plastic grip? I have used the EGW and a Dawson on the PT steel grips with no problems. Thanks, Eric

Good tip. I inserted the Dawson mainspring housing into the plastic STI grip and I was able to insert the cross pin. Ditto for the metal Fusion mainspring housing.

I guess it's the PT grip? I am able to use the plastic STI mainspring housing with the PT grip but I want a metal one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If it's even minutely off the pin won't go through. The plastic is way more forgiving. I've had to fit 2 metal mainspring housings to PT grips. An EGW and a Dawson one. A couple minutes with a round file and you're good to go. The Dawson one needed more fitting other than the pin hole also.

Edited by robb315
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Hello: Sounds like something is not correct with either the 2 mainspring housings or the grip. Can you check the metal mainspring housings on a plastic grip? I have used the EGW and a Dawson on the PT steel grips with no problems. Thanks, Eric

When you so say no problem buddy you mean they just dropped right in? Or you had to fit them a little bit? I am wanting to add a dawson ss msh and dont wanna have to spent 2hrs fitting them lol.... question what is the best style to get that fits the grip contour? Flat small?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just purchased a second Dawson flat stainless steel mainspring housing. The hole still does not line up with the holes in the Phoenix Trinity stainless steel grip.

As a test, I inserted the Dawson mainspring housing into my plastic STI grip and the mainspring hole does not line up with the STI grip holes. The plastic STI mainspring housing hole does align. It seems the hole in the Dawson mainspring is too far back, towards the vertical grooves.

I will attempt to enlarge the Dawson mainspring housing hole this weekend. The back bottom right-hand corner also needs to be reduced so the magwell can be properly seated.

Edited by surfmaster
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sounds an awful lot like what happened when I got my STI Eagle last year. Apparently STI had slightly changed their spec a little bit and i ended up having to slightly ovalize the holes in the grip to allow the pin to go though. I wonder if Phoenix Trinity reverse engineered one of these new grips and ended up with the strange new pin location.

I had the exact same thing Plastic STI MSH would fit perfectly but NOTING else would. And everything else all seemed consistent, hole in the MSH tangential with the rail.

Good Luck!

If you want to see my trials and tribulations:

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=188918&hl=

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a PT aluminum grip and several of the MS housings I tried it was difficult to get the pin in. Also, the contour of even the flat MS housing did not match the contour of the grip. But the Dawson flat steel "small hands" housing was a perfect contour fit. The pi took a little work though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Little update recieved MSH (Dawson SS Flat, small) fits contour of the grip decent. Now onto fitting [emoji34] it would not even go 1/2" into the grip upon recieving. It needed the rib/rail (not sure how you would properly describe it but i know we all know what i am talking about) on the side filed down. I did not use a caliper to measure intial size vs fitted size. I fit it till it fit snuggly but would slide on by hand. Unto next issue like many others i had to oblong the hole for the pin. Needless to say tommorrow will tell if makes any difference. I think PT needs to come out with MSH to match there texture and contour.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I would like to give everyone an update. I recently received a Dawson Precision small flat stainless mainspring housing. Like the regular DP mainspring, the pin did not align with the mainspring and Phoenix Trinity grip holes.

I located my $5 set of diamond files that I bought from Amazon and I went to work. I inserted the tip of a round diamond file through the PT grip hole to figure where on the mainspring hole that had a ledge that needed filing – and it was all around, 360 degress. I also used a drill to enlarge the hole in the mainspring.

This was a two-hour lesson in trial-and-error and patience. I would file, drill and fit. Frustrating at times, I fit and inserted the mainspring into the grip at least 15 times. During the 8th try, the pin would go in half way but no more. I tried the other side of the grip and experienced the same issue. I kept filing, drilling and fitting until finally, the pin could be tapped in with a punch and rubber mallet. Yahoo!

I then put on the DP magwell and, yes, the pin could be easily installed. No need to grind the base of this small version of the DP mainspring. The regular size mainspring would have required more fitting. Glad I avoided this with the small version.

Based on my and others' experiences with metal mainspring housings and these grips, it appears you don't know what you're going to get. Despite this, it was worth the work as the small DP fits my medium size hands better anyway and looks great. Plus, these PT grips are simply beautiful and add weight in the right place.

I would like to thank a vendor here for allowing me to exchange my regular Dawson mainspring for the small version (SG of PFS).

I would also like to thank Tiffany of Phoenix Trinity for always returning my calls and answering my numerous questions.

I cannot wait to start using my blaster again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used an Ed Brown MS housing. I chose the snakeskin pattern as it most closely resembled the PT aggressive grip pattern. It slipped right into the grip and holes lined up perfectly. My grip was from PT's production run around the time of the IPSC world shoot.

The only thing I had to do was to radius the inside bottom of the MS housing to get it closer to the profile of the grip/mag well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...
On 1/26/2015 at 0:31 PM, grantwoodok said:

I used an Ed Brown MS housing. I chose the snakeskin pattern as it most closely resembled the PT aggressive grip pattern. It slipped right into the grip and holes lined up perfectly. My grip was from PT's production run around the time of the IPSC world shoot.

The only thing I had to do was to radius the inside bottom of the MS housing to get it closer to the profile of the grip/mag well.

I just tried an Ed Brown and it won't slide on more than 1/2"  Guess the files need to come out.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...