kcobean Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 My 2011 has had occasional hammer-follow issues since I got it mid-summer last year but I could never figure out why. Manually cycling the hammer it works a hundred times out of a hundred. At a match last weekend, I ended up switching to my backup gun because I had three hammer follows in a single stage. I was dry firing with it last night and it happened again...so I started playing with it some more and was able to reproduce the issue on demand. Here's a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bShLuIX8nWE A friend of mine suggested I remove the grip safety so I can see the sear/hammer operation and identify the problem. Turns out he's a smart guy....I took his suggestion and immediately I can see the issue. My grip has gotten strong enough that it's causing the pistol's grip to flex and that's causing the sear spring to slip down below the sear. Not underneath it, just below it enough that it's not pressing forward on the sear, so the sear doesn't engage the hammer. If I wiggle the safety lever a bit or hand-cycle the slide a few times, it moves back into place. My backup 2011 isn't stippled nearly as heavily as the Akai gun and I never have this problem with it. I'm wondering if the aggressive stippling and undercut on the Akai grip has weakened it enough to cause this. The gun is practically glued to my hands when I grip it, but that's probably making the problem even worse. I'm tempted to buy a metal grip for the gun now, just to never have to worry about this again. Anyway...just figured I'd post this up on the odd chance that a fellow shooter has a similar problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3djedi Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Wow....... that's pretty bizarre! and scary. Had my grip stippled and now the mags won't drop unless I take all pressure off the grip. sorry, I have no idea what the issue is with your 2011 but definitely freaks me out a bit. Unfortunately, I don't know much about how the innards work......yet! maybe you should dust off the old glock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advan031 Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Get a Phoenix Trinity steel with aggressive texture = problem solved. You can grip the hell out your gun until your hands bleed and your mags drop free 100% of the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stardust tommy Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 you can make the sear spring longer... the trick is to bend the "lip" on the bottum from 90° to a 45° angle. this is how you heat the spring in a (large) box with water so only the 90° lip gets heated up heat if 3 or 4 times red hot; let it cool down and use a small hammer to tap the lip to 45°. I believe Dawson has a special searspring for the 2011 grip also make sure your trigger has as little overtravel as possible, but make sure the sear is clear of the hammer when it drops. to much overtravel and you can pull the sear to far back and the sear spring will slip under the sear and make sure your grip bushings are tight! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcobean Posted February 11, 2015 Author Share Posted February 11, 2015 you can make the sear spring longer... the trick is to bend the "lip" on the bottum from 90° to a 45° angle. this is how you heat the spring in a (large) box with water so only the 90° lip gets heated up heat if 3 or 4 times red hot; let it cool down and use a small hammer to tap the lip to 45°. I believe Dawson has a special searspring for the 2011 grip also make sure your trigger has as little overtravel as possible, but make sure the sear is clear of the hammer when it drops. to much overtravel and you can pull the sear to far back and the sear spring will slip under the sear and make sure your grip bushings are tight! The bend in the tip of the sear finger sits beside the sear, right? How does bending this out to 45 degrees make the portion of the spring that actually engages the sear longer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcobean Posted February 11, 2015 Author Share Posted February 11, 2015 (edited) Get a Phoenix Trinity steel with aggressive texture = problem solved. You can grip the hell out your gun until your hands bleed and your mags drop free 100% of the time. This is what I'm thinking, it's just hard to imagine spending $500 on a grip. I had a problem with mags dropping free in this gun, but it was because I'm a lefty and the way my index finger engages the mag release the mag-release bar was actually moving rearward and rubbing on the mags, it wasn't the grip itself. A few minutes with a file took care of that. Edited February 11, 2015 by kcobean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DWNZRO Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 CK Arms just released a new aluminum grip in the $300 range but they aren't available to buy separately yet. Maybe contact them and see if they have a timeline for selling them outside of a build. Just a thought if you're concerned about spending $500. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcobean Posted February 11, 2015 Author Share Posted February 11, 2015 Thanks smoked. I'm afraid that putting a CK grip on an AC gun might bring about the end of othe universe, but I'll check it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stardust tommy Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 you can make the sear spring longer... the trick is to bend the "lip" on the bottum from 90° to a 45° angle. this is how you heat the spring in a (large) box with water so only the 90° lip gets heated up heat if 3 or 4 times red hot; let it cool down and use a small hammer to tap the lip to 45°. I believe Dawson has a special searspring for the 2011 grip also make sure your trigger has as little overtravel as possible, but make sure the sear is clear of the hammer when it drops. to much overtravel and you can pull the sear to far back and the sear spring will slip under the sear and make sure your grip bushings are tight! The bend in the tip of the sear finger sits beside the sear, right? How does bending this out to 45 degrees make the portion of the spring that actually engages the sear longer? the left spring is on the sear pushing it forwards so the seartip rotates to the hammer, by bending the bottom "lip" to 45° the spring can't move down and sits just a tiny bit higher. you just take the little amount of clearance away. you don't bend the tip of the left spring that rest on the sear. in my picture you can see that my locking pliers or holding the left leg under water so it does not heat up I hope this sounds clear to you, English is only my second language gr T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supermoto Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 After the hammer drops, take the mainspring housing off, see if the sear spring has fallen under the sear. I have had that issue with some of mine 2011, the sear spring slips off. I peened the sear spring to make it wider at the base to stop it from sliding to the left Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeRush Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 I'd try a Dawson enhanced 2011 sear spring before anything else. Its less than 7 bucks and may fix your current issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stardust tommy Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 indeed, but you have to know how to adjust the spring. otherwise you might have a 4lbs triggerpull... with my fix you also have to check your triggerpull but the adjustmenst are minimal gr T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcobean Posted February 11, 2015 Author Share Posted February 11, 2015 Ok, I see what you're saying Tommy, makes perfect sense. I was thinking you were talking about the bend in the left portion of the sear finger, not the base of the spring itself, and I didn't look closely enough at your photo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jstagn Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Kelly, more common than you think, especially if the grip was reduced in size, then stippled. The sear spring for the new PARA PRO CUSTOMs 2011 are longer and that may solve issue. Worth a try before you spend big bucks. No, I do not have one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcobean Posted February 11, 2015 Author Share Posted February 11, 2015 (edited) The sear spring isn't slipping off to the left of the sear, it's actually sliding off the bottom. Looks like what's happening is that because my grip is very high I'm exerting upward pressure on the grip safety which is flexing the rear of the frame up and increasing the distance between the mainspring housing slot that the base of the spring sits in, and the sear. It's slipping far enough off the sear that it'll bind the sear and not allow it to engage the hammer. Enough jarring and it'll slip back into place and work again. I bought an SV light touch spring. They're supposed to be a little wider/longer and it looks like they have an 'ear' on the right side of the sear finger that helps prevent the left-slip off condition. I also need to check the torque on the upper grip screws and make sure they're tight. If they're loose, they may be allowing the movement I'm seeing. I'll update the thread when the new spring is installed. Edited February 11, 2015 by kcobean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
818-DVC Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 If your grip is flexing that much because of reduction/stippling, you might want to try epoxy and SiCa sand treatment. It made my grip so structurally rigid, and the feel is terrific. Mags drop free no matter how hard I gorilla grip my gun. I'm rocking this until I can get the new CK Arms grip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jstagn Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Would 'pinning' the safety help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcobean Posted February 12, 2015 Author Share Posted February 12, 2015 I don't think so. What does help is making sure the upper grip screws aren't coming loose. Funny how that can play with the sear spring engagement. Sigh.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billdozer Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 You can raise the slot in the frame, then raise the sear spring up a smidge and epoxy under it to fill up the gap. Make sure and Use a release agent on the sear spring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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