1911 questions

[penguinofsleep]

IF TLDR, just read questions in red and answer what you can.
Detail stripped and reassembled a new 1911 (dw vbob) for the 1st time a few weeks ago, so I don't remember all the minor details. 3 minor issues, 1 of which is probably my fault, and 1 other question:

Question:
- The little rubber o-rings/bushings under the grip screws that sit between the grips and the screws (to prevent grips cracking I imagine) came already split/separated/broken fresh out of the box upon me unscrewing the grip screws.
What size are these little things?

3 minor issues:
- Every time I remove the recoil spring, I get little scratches on the guide rod. Any ideas aside from new spring?

One end of the recoil spring sits around the GI length guide rod. I notice that the diameter of the spring tapers down on this end that sits over the rod so that the two stay fixed to each other. However, every time I take the spring off the rod, it leaves little scratches on the rod. Purely cosmetic and nothing deep on the rod that I can't fix with fine grit sand paper or polish off, but it's still annoying. Not to mention the chalkboard scratching noise it makes when I do take the spring off. I already filed the sharp corner (end of the spring) that was originally on the inside of the spring away and it didn't help with this problem at all.

- Right leg of leaf/sear spring sticks out really far? This shouldn't be a problem if the sear works properly and all of the safeties work properly?

The leg on the right (when you look at the spring from the back end of the gun) sticks out/back pretty far when taken out of the gun, even compared to pictures I found online. Based on a schematic and the fit of the gun, it seems like this leg is only responsible for the grip safety and as far as I can tell, the grip safety works fine. I did not bend the leg or do anything to it as far as I know.

- MSH retaining pin was hard to put back in, even with a punch and rubber hammer. Tiny bit of metal shavings - shouldn't be a problem? Is there a way to make this easier?

Upon replacing the pin, I was able to line the hole up with the frame and MSH. However, I don't remember, but it is possible, that I (foolishly) may have tried to drive the pin in with the hammer down - I didn't realize this until today. I do know that the MSH itself was as far up as I could push it and it aligned with the frame. The difficulty of this surprises me as everything else fit very well/easily w/o being too loose. Yet this pin was harder to start before it even got through the edges of the frame and even harder when it the MSH in the middle.

It was hard the 1st time and on the 1 hit where I finally got it in, I had hit it hard enough by the time I got the pin in, I had hit it so hard that it actually went over the detent in the middle and almost straight out the other side. The 2nd time a tiny bit of metal flakes and shavings (about the size of the small flecks of brass you may find inside of a pistol during a cleaning) were on the tip/end of the pin that I had driven through. I couldn't see any scratches on the end of the pin. There were also no scratches or flakes on the pin itself the first time I took it apart or after my 1st time driving it through.
Also, in terms of making this easier in the future, lets assume I didn't leave the hammer down.

[penguinofsleep]

Also in before OP retarded or OP be more patient. I did not rush through any of the above, was patient with all the parts, and aside from driving the MSH retaining pin back in, I didn't use much force for anything at all (everything fit pretty well).

Also any general advice about detail stripping any more 1911s would be great.
ex: I didn't learn until now that holding down the grip safety with a rubber band can help keep everything in place after the MSH comes out.

[TitanCi]

1911 questions

1) you can buy the o rings at Home Depot, Danco #60; 1/4" OD, 1/8" ID.
2) the closed end of the recoil spring is probably scratching the rod. Who cares. It will happen.
3) i wish I knew more about sear adjustments
4) a lot of things are hand fit on the Valor, so perhaps the pin is just slightly larger than the holes for tighter fitment? Just a guess...

ETA: yes, rubber band on the safety helps!
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[Snoopy47]

Right prong of leaf spring

Yes, the right spring on the 3 prong leaf spring is for the grip safety. Any adjustment to it will only increase or decrease the amount of tension needed to depress the grip safety.

MSH

Yes, it is always a pain to put the pin back. This goes for my Colt, Les Baer, and Springfield. Putting it back in it is under spring tension thus the difficulty regardless of model.

1) Remember to make sure the hammer is down.

2) I typically slide it back in slowly to make sure I don't bind up the leaf spring. Then once slid in as far as it will easily go I think hold the frame as such that I'm pressing the MSH against something solid (like a table) in order to get the MSH in it's final position. From there I can get the pin started to the first notch. You should notice that there is a notch in the center of the pin. It will get caught on the MSH plunger end at the bottom of the spring. At that point I simply finish putting it in with a plastic/rubber mallet.

[wamphyri13]

The only thing I can add is regarding the recoil spring. What the others have said, I was going to say as well. For the spring, do you try to remove it by pulling straight off? If so, twist the spring slightly in the opposite direction of the coils while pulling it off the rod. This will open up the coils slightly making it easier to remove. Otherwise, don't really worry about it.
The two hardest things about reassembling a 1911 are blindly lining up the sear and disconnector, and making sure you don't &$^* up the sear spring when you put the grip safety and MSH back on. As you've already learned, a good rubber band goes in the tool kit, and the hammer must be up when putting the MSH back in. It is extremely easy to put back in at this point. If the hammer is down, you'll fight it all the way just like it sounds that you did.
When I got my Valor a couple months ago, I did a complete strip, clean, and hand lapped the slide. A couple of weeks later, I took it all apart again to install a Kimber 2-hole trigger. When I got it all back together, the grip safety wasn't working properly. Strip it down again and reassemble. Something in the sear spring in relation to reinstalling the grip safety was slightly off the first time. The grip safety was tough to squeeze in, and didn't fully spring back, (stiff and sluggish) allowing the trigger to drop the hammer without my hand on the grip safety. After the second time, it felt right and everything was working just fine. Something was just slightly off and interfering with proper function. All is good now.

Also on the recoil spring, the closed flat end goes over the rod while the open coil goes into the spring plug.
If we lived anywhere near each other, I could go over it with you step by step, but it sounds like you've got a handle on it.
Ryan

[postal]

The only thing I can add is regarding the recoil spring. For the spring, do you try to remove it by pulling straight off? If so, twist the spring slightly in the opposite direction of the coils while pulling it off the rod. This will open up the coils slightly making it easier to remove.
Ryan

Same when you put the spring back on- twist it on- it slides over the guide rod much easier.

[postal]

The only thing I can add is regarding the recoil spring. For the spring, do you try to remove it by pulling straight off? If so, twist the spring slightly in the opposite direction of the coils while pulling it off the rod. This will open up the coils slightly making it easier to remove.
Ryan

Same when you put the spring back on- twist it on- it slides over the guide rod much easier.

Also, I think the o rings are for a friction fit of the screw heads themselves to keep them from loosening on their own.

[penguinofsleep]

Thanks for all the info guys.

Looks like the o-rings will be an easy fix. Now that I think about it, I'm going to give DW a call tomorrow just so they know about it, although whether they give me replacement o-rings or not isn't a big deal... the biggest issue is just taking the time to go to home depot/lowes/ace/etc to actually get the o-rings.

Recoil spring - I tried twisting on/off the 2nd time I field stripped. It wasn't any easier. But it left scratches all over the guide rod and made a lot of the nails on chalkboard noise vs just pulling it straight off. Same applies after I filed down and rounded the sharp inside edge.

My grip safety is still pretty easy to engage (no more difficult than any other major manufacturer that I've tried, and I've tried most of them). Also, yes, that whole area with the leaf spring, sear, and disconnecter was a bit of a balancing act, but I got it all together after a few minutes. The leaf spring did jump out on me once though upon reassembly... It was also a bit of a mess when I took the MSH off and the leaf spring jumped and twisted sideways a bit. Haven't live fired since I did the cleaning, but in my dry function checks, it seems like everything went back together OK. I'll be sure to only fire 1 round, then 2, to make sure the sear and disconnector are working as intended.

As for the MSH - Luckily no one has said anything along the lines of "STOP NOW" or "DO NOT USE! GUN UNSAFE!". Guess this was a much easier lesson learned the hard way. Was a bit concerned initially when I saw the metal shavings as there definitely were NOT and marks on the pin when I took it out the first time. Also wasn't sure if they were from the inside of the MSH as it was the one thing I didn't take apart (and hence I wasn't sure if I may have shaved metal off a tiny but crucial part... doesn't look like it from various schematics I looked at though) Guess in a worst case scenario I can buy another pin when I call DW tomorrow... I'm in no rush to pop the pin out just to check this right now

I did push the MSH against something to make sure it was all the way up, but I didn't hold it there when I tried to reinstall the pin (not enough hands). I thought it was somewhat expected that the pin would be hard to put back in as every single disassembly/reassembly video, including one from Wilson Combat, if I remember correctly, fast forwarded/skipped over this part on reassembly (assumed they didn't want to waste 2 min of video time showing them hitting it back in). Seems like Snoopy agrees, but wamphyri says it shouldn't be so bad. I was expecting a little effort as this pin was the only one that didn't fit freely into the hole in the frame (even w/o MSH in), but I didn't expect it to be so hard that metal bits were shaved off.

[TitanCi]

^went to HD today to buy some, the smallest size they have is 5/16 OD, and ID was slightly larger, so they must have stopped carrying them in store. Luckily I bought a pack of 10 off homedepot.com and it cost $2.45 shipped to store for pick up.


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[tophatjones]

1) Guide rod scratches. Seems normal to me.
2) Leaf spring leg sticks out far. Seems normal to me. Don't mess with the leaf spring unless you know what you're doing.
3) MSH retaining pin difficult to get in place. Make sure the hammer is down to reduce pressure from the mainspring. Try pushing the pin in with a small, 1 ton press if you have one (I bought mine to press FAL locking shoulders). If not, you can substitute the press with a bench vise. In either case, use something like hard wood blocks so that neither the press nor vise jaws are touching the frame directly, to prevent scratching.