Grip Safety Stuck Engaged

[Bird_Dog0347]

Last night I changed out my trigger from a stock STI to a long flat SVI trigger as I like the feel of that a little better. But once I got it all back together to test fire it, the grip safety will not disengage. It is almost like it is pinned.

After taking a closer look at it from the top looking down into the magwell, I could see the grip safety was resting on top of the trigger bow in the rear, thus not letting it pivot down to make it safe again. I did notice before I put the new trigger in last night, as I compared them closely, they are a little different. The shape of the bow on the STI is far more square/rectangle, and the SVI has more of a curve at the front and back of it. Also, the SVI seems to look "taller" on the rear of the bow where the disconnector contacts the trigger bow, and it "looks" like the problem is due to the hieght of the bow there.

The gun dry fires just fine, but I do need the grip safety to function as I use the gun in IDPA. I don't really want to make changes to anything but the new trigger as I know the gun works great with the old one and another trigger is much cheaper than anything else if I screw it up. I can provide close up pics tonight when I get home.

I guess my question is, is it better to modify (bend/polish/file) the new trigger bow to make it work with the existing (exceptional) trigger job and safetys? Or will I have to modify the grip safety to work with the new trigger? If it is the latter, I will say screw it and take it to a good smith, but if I can/should modify the new trigger I can do that pretty easily with the tools I have at home.

[Dave Sample]

Always work on the cheapest part.

[lynn jones]

take it apart and put it back together. look at the grip screw bushing, make sure it's lined up correctly.

lynn

[Bird_Dog0347]

Well, after taking more time to study the design differences, I figured out the problem... The trigger bow was higher in the grip than the old one, thus the grip safety could not pivot as it did with the old trigger.

The solution was simple once I took a close look at the design of the SVI trigger. It has 2 "feet" near the back of the trigger bow inside the grip panels. In order to lower the top of the trigger bow at the rear where the grip safety blocks the trigger movement, I had to file down the feet until I got juct enough clearance for everything to work as it should.

Now the trigger is even better than it was before! Still the same pull weight and absolutely no creep or overtravel, but there is even less takeup.