Joined
·
3,037 Posts
You could try replacing the plunger spring and plungers. They're cheap and it's easy to do. Because you've asked about how to do it, my guess is that you haven't often (or ever?) done a complete disassembly of a 1911 before. Usually, with modern 1911s, the problem isn't getting that assembly out: the problem is finding it on the floor after it has launched itself to freedom after the thumb safety is removed.
So, to answer one of your direct questions, the way to remove the existing plunger spring assembly is to strip your 1911 so you separate the frame from the slide, remove the thumb safety, and watch the plunger spring assembly take off. If it doesn't do so on its own, pull it out from the side of the plunger tube facing the thumb safety. Then check to make sure that there's nothing remaining inside the plunger tube. If there is anything still there, poke it out with a toothpick inserted from the side facing the slide stop. And if that was necessary you've probably found the problem: a broken plunger spring. It happens sometimes. Replacing the assembly should solve the problem.
The most sensible way to get those parts, in my own opinion, is to buy an Ed Brown rebuild kit from Brownells. The kit costs about $15-$17 and has those parts as well as the other pins and springs needed for a 1911 from time to time.
It's much harder to replace the thumb safety and the plunger tube. You'll do what you want, of course, and other people will advise you differently, but I'd suggest that you have a competent 1911 pistolsmith tackle those jobs. The thumb safety is, as the name says, a safety device and it requires fitting by someone who understands the interrelationship among the parts in the 1911 fire control group. I'm not saying that it's a black art known only to a few. But I am saying that the thumb safety isn't a drop-in part. The plunger tube is diabolical. It fits just so into two holes in the frame, and removing it can mess up those holes in some frames--especially aluminum alloy frames. Replacing it properly is something of a black art, because both studs must be recessed and staked into the inside of the frame, and the rearmost stud is a nasty creature. Do this job wrong and you can create serious problems. To do it properly requires not only knowledge and skill but also a special tool that isn't used for anything else. Lots of kitchen table gunsmiths do it, and often they do a job that looks okay and even functions for a while. I wouldn't bet my life on it.
Again, I'm not saying that you can't learn how to do both of those jobs and others. Nobody is born knowing how to do them. And that, I suppose, is my point.
So, to answer one of your direct questions, the way to remove the existing plunger spring assembly is to strip your 1911 so you separate the frame from the slide, remove the thumb safety, and watch the plunger spring assembly take off. If it doesn't do so on its own, pull it out from the side of the plunger tube facing the thumb safety. Then check to make sure that there's nothing remaining inside the plunger tube. If there is anything still there, poke it out with a toothpick inserted from the side facing the slide stop. And if that was necessary you've probably found the problem: a broken plunger spring. It happens sometimes. Replacing the assembly should solve the problem.
The most sensible way to get those parts, in my own opinion, is to buy an Ed Brown rebuild kit from Brownells. The kit costs about $15-$17 and has those parts as well as the other pins and springs needed for a 1911 from time to time.
It's much harder to replace the thumb safety and the plunger tube. You'll do what you want, of course, and other people will advise you differently, but I'd suggest that you have a competent 1911 pistolsmith tackle those jobs. The thumb safety is, as the name says, a safety device and it requires fitting by someone who understands the interrelationship among the parts in the 1911 fire control group. I'm not saying that it's a black art known only to a few. But I am saying that the thumb safety isn't a drop-in part. The plunger tube is diabolical. It fits just so into two holes in the frame, and removing it can mess up those holes in some frames--especially aluminum alloy frames. Replacing it properly is something of a black art, because both studs must be recessed and staked into the inside of the frame, and the rearmost stud is a nasty creature. Do this job wrong and you can create serious problems. To do it properly requires not only knowledge and skill but also a special tool that isn't used for anything else. Lots of kitchen table gunsmiths do it, and often they do a job that looks okay and even functions for a while. I wouldn't bet my life on it.
Again, I'm not saying that you can't learn how to do both of those jobs and others. Nobody is born knowing how to do them. And that, I suppose, is my point.
