2011 disconnector, sear, hammer issues

[Benevolence]

Hi all, I hope to not make this too lengthy. I’m building my second 2011 and I did a 80% lower (mill rails, drill hammer/sear holes using center drill then drill bits on a mill with DRO so the dimensions should be accurate but I’m now maybe suspect). I am having some weird issues that are hard to replicate. Upon occasional dry firing, I am unable to ‘fire’ the gun and the hammer stays cocked. The trigger moves as it should and the disconnector moves forward and back. Upon inspection, the disconnector is staying down and the sear legs are too far towards the muzzle to allow the disconnector to be pushed up by the leaf spring. If I remove the thumb safety and grip safety, and pull the hammer unnaturally far back, it will allow the sear/disconnector to reset and it retains function again. I can’t seem to replicate this with the thumb & grip safety in; no malfunctions occur but this may be a false negative. I have also occasionally observed hammer ‘follow’ (fall to half cock) when hand racking it. 

 

I’m thinking there’s several possibilities:

•I drilled the hammer/sear hole too far apart (but why not repeatable with safeties out?)

•The safety detent spring is pushing the safety upward and that’s riding the sear? (but manually lowering it doesn’t let the fcg reset)

 

I’m reading stuff online about leaf spring length, disconnector ‘shovel’ dimensions, and trigger bow length, but pushing down on the disconnector doesn’t allow it to reset; it seems like it has to be the sear being impeded by the hammer or thumb safety.

Edited December 27, 2020 by Benevolence

[Benevolence]

Well, just to update that I feel like an idiot. Looks like the sear to hammer hole are a few thou out of alignment (drill bit wandering during drilling, not(?) during the first part. Should have undersized and reamed) and the sear legs are partially catching on the disco when it’s trying to reset. That, combined with the sear-hammer engagement is likely not aligned great. Hopefully redeemable by fitting the sear to accommodate. Not desirable though and frustrating. Should have just done a complete frame like I did on my first. 

Edited December 27, 2020 by Benevolence

[Bakerjd]

2 hours ago, Benevolence said:

Well, just to update that I feel like an idiot. Looks like the sear to hammer hole are a few thou out of alignment (drill bit wandering during drilling, not(?) during the first part. Should have undersized and reamed) and the sear legs are partially catching on the disco when it’s trying to reset. That, combined with the sear-hammer engagement is likely not aligned great. Hopefully redeemable by fitting the sear to accommodate. Not desirable though and frustrating. Should have just done a complete frame like I did on my first. 

I belive EGW makes oversized sear and hammer pins. I know for a fact EGW makes a long nose sear as well. Also deep river customs has oversized pins. If it was me I would ream to new pin size and fit new internals. Also some disconnectors are slightly longer or larger where they engage the sear. 

 

As for drilling those pin holes in an 80% frame I only drill one side at a time. Havent ever needed to ream them to size but a reamer would be the best way to get a true size as drills are not meant for that. 

[Benevolence]

Great, thanks. I hope the oversized pins are large enough and I can true up the sear/hammer holes in the frame. I feel like I did good on fitting the slide and barrel to the frame so this is a bit of a shame.

[MikeBurgess]

32 minutes ago, Benevolence said:

Great, thanks. I hope the oversized pins are large enough and I can true up the sear/hammer holes in the frame. I feel like I did good on fitting the slide and barrel to the frame so this is a bit of a shame.

most "over size" hammer and sear pins are just at the top of the tolerance range not actually any larger and wont gain you much if anything in being able to bore out your frame to correct miss alignment. 

 

also running a reamer through miss aligned holes will get you larger miss aligned holes. 

 

If your holes are messed up,  I would bore the holes out oversize in the correct location with a end mill or boring head and press in sleeves to reduce the new over size correctly located and aligned holes to factory spec dia.  A good press fit would probably be fine but I would be tempted to silver solder the sleeves in place before drilling and reaming to final size.

 

 

[Benevolence]

3 hours ago, MikeBurgess said:

most "over size" hammer and sear pins are just at the top of the tolerance range not actually any larger and wont gain you much if anything in being able to bore out your frame to correct miss alignment. 

 

also running a reamer through miss aligned holes will get you larger miss aligned holes. 

 

If your holes are messed up,  I would bore the holes out oversize in the correct location with a end mill or boring head and press in sleeves to reduce the new over size correctly located and aligned holes to factory spec dia.  A good press fit would probably be fine but I would be tempted to silver solder the sleeves in place before drilling and reaming to final size.

 

 

True, I was kind of worrying about that as well. I’ve got a 3/16” ball nose carbide endmill I could bore out the sear/disco hole with, and turn some hard steel for a press in sleeve (have access to LN2 and a torch). Hopefully the endmill is rigid enough to keep center. 

[Benevolence]

I think it was several things, and I took some material off of the front of the sear feet and put a tiny bend in the back of the trigger bow. This should allow the disco to raise when the sear is engaging the hammer. Whether it truly was the hammer/sear hole locations I’m not sure but it definitely wasn’t the best. Appear to have it working now

[Bakerjd]

@Benevolence good to hear. I've done a few RIA doublestack frames with out of spec hammer/sear holes. Sometimes just messing with different sears and hammers gets it working.