Auto Ordinance 1911 Wilson Value Line Hammer install

[Russty]

I really love Wilson Combat products, but . . . I bought a 455b Value Line hammer for my Auto Ord. 1911 and now the hammer will not hold at full cock. Wilson said, yeah, have it fitted but gave no advice as to how. I get it, issues and all, but I do love the look of this hammer (as opposed to the current spur) and would love to be able to fit it myself. Ideas? I removed and re-installed the original and the Wilson about 5 times each to ensure I had it properly installed.

[donnyglock]

This is why there’s no drop in parts on 1911’s. Your sear may be outa spec. Frame holes out of spec…. Etc. what you were attempting without proper knowledge wasn’t a good idea. 

[Ben53]

Back about 25 years ago I worked on some Auto-Ordinance 1911's, and they were notorious for being "out of spec", hole spacing being off and things like that.  They were not the best to work on.  I don't know how they are now, or how old your Auto-Ord receiver is but I'm not surprised to hear you're having problems; as mentioned above "drop in parts" usually aren't on 1911's.  I suggest you find a pistolsmith who knows his way around a 1911 and have him try to fit your new hammer.  

 

[Braxton1]

Auto-Ordnance frames are good, but they CAN suffer from the same issue as any cast frame: out-of-spec holes and other surfaces.

 

The problem comes in when establishing an Datum Point, the zero point from which all cuts are made in an object.  With a billet frame, the datum point can pretty much be anywhere and it will cause no issues.  You're working off of a big cube of metal.  Anything that doesn't look like a 1911 gets lopped off.  Where the Datum Point is located is irrelevant, to a big point.

 

On a cast gun, the frame is cast very close to final dimensions.  The Datum Point must be located pretty accurately, because any significant error may result in the milling machine wanting to cut off some metal that is not there.  At the same time, errors in Datum Point location can put the pinholes in weird locations also (and it doesn't take much of an error to make it damned near impossible to get a nice trigger job that will last.) 

 

All that to say this:

 

What I have seen mostly with Wilson hammers is that the OEM sears are just a tad too long to properly drop into the full cock notch.  Not Wilson's fault; not A-O's fault.  Stoning the sear nose a little corrects this issue, but may also make it where the Thumb Safety is not longer fit properly.  That may require a weld-up or a new safety to be fit.  This is a job that would require a medium- to high-level skillset, so it's likely something you wouldn't want to do at the kitchen table.

 

Back in the 80's, when we shot single-stack Supers in Open Division, I built many raceguns from A-O frame/slide combos.  Chip McCormick shot them professionally.  They're a good product, if you know how to work around their limitations.

[Russty]

Ok, thanks for the knowledge! I dropped in a new beavertail grip safety (which didn't fit, though it did function, too large a gap), trigger spring thing, new bolt release and new backstrap. Got cocky, I guess, I'll just send the hammer back. I bobbed the old hammer, works fine, just not cool looking.

Edited July 1, 2022 by Russty