Trigger bar differences?

[jeff40]

I put an Apex duty/carry AEK in my standard .40 including the striker safety. Now I'm getting occasional failure to fire. The old sear housing Block had the small diameter plunger so I put in a new one from Brownells along with a new "H" trigger bar. The raised portion of the trigger bar doesn't travel rearward enough to engage the striker block adequately. Any ideas? Does the "S" trigger bar have more reach?

[TacticalReload]

Reshape the loop on the bar so it engages the sear later in the pull. This increases pre-travel but should solve your problem. The shapes of these things are all over the map.

[jeff40]

So....close the loop? I did open it quite a bit in order to insure sear release and reset.

[TacticalReload]

It's not really as simple as opening or closing it. However, if you opened it, that could definitely be the source of your issues. Be cautious about dryfiring it until you can get that block engaging again otherwise you might start peening the striker.

[jeff40]

I shined a flashlight through the rear of the slide per someone else suggestion and I could observe that the striker block IS being moved up out of the way. Any other ideas why i'd be getting failures to fire?

[MemphisMechanic]

Confirm that it isn't ammo related.

Have you shot factory ammo through the gun?

Have you changed striker springs recently?

[TacticalReload]

Plus make sure it's actually move up *enough* to have the striker clear. Have you tried the old school pencil test?

[jeff40]

Good idea. I'll try the pencil. It's a low-mileage carry gun, so I've never messed with the striker spring. Memphis, 50 rounds of factory actually did 100%, but the reloads in question were either Winchester or CCI primers, and double checked to be seated.

I ordered a new striker assembly from Brownells. I compared with my 9L striker and it appears this problem gun is probably one of the earliest models with none of the upgrades.

[jeff40]

I got it guys! Apparently my gun was one of the first off the assembly line. The old style striker didn't get along well with the Apex USB. There's a marked difference between the old and new strikers. Dropped in the new one and the gun is running 100%. I even ran some culls with high primers and they all went bang. Launched the pencil right to the ceiling! Thanks all of you for your input.