SA Mil spec 1911 wont fire!

[Grim Peeper]

My SA 1911 Stopped working at the range the other day. It was shooting fine then totally decided to stop shoot at all when I noticed that the hammer falls just short of the firing pin. When this happens the slide is full foward and in battery. I can drop the hammer manually slowly but when I go to fire it makes a doink sound and stops right before striking the pin to fine. Very Frustrating!!!

 

[Greg528iT]

VERY Frustrating. Call Springfield, great customer service, I'm sure they'll take care of you. It's too hard to guess what may be up. Could be a lot of things,

 

[brnmuenchow]

Firing pin stop or hammer strut (just guessing)... Greg528iT is right could be anything.

 

[1911Tuner]

If the hammer is stopping on the half or quarter cock, the disconnect is being squirted out of position between the sear and the trigger. Could be the sear spring, or it could be the amount of overlap between the disconnect spade and the sear feet.

 

[cyclopsshooter]

Hammer might be striking the edge of hammer slot on the slide. depress the trigger and the grip safety to move the hammer up and down repeatedly while adding pressure right and left.. Do you feel it catch?

 

[Grim Peeper]

Tuner I think the sear is engageing the hammer at the quater cock and keeping it from falling all the way. Should I try adjusting the sear spring? If so how?

 

[Grim Peeper]

If it is an easy fix I want do it myself. I would send it in to SA but I got this gun second hand and never filled out any kind of warranty can I still send it in to be fixed?

 

[Skylerbone]

You could start by adding some tension to the center leaf by bending it toward the muzzle. Take note of the position of all three before and after. If that cures it, order a new Colt sear spring and swap it in.

 

[1911Tuner]

If the sear spring doesn't have enough tension on the disconnect to keep it in the connected position, bending it forward will probably work...at least for a while. Because it functioned at first, and then stopped...it may be a bad spring.

If it's because the disconnect spade and sear feet don't have enough overlap, bending the spring won't help much, if any.

Try it. Ya never know.

 

[Grim Peeper]

It Worked the hammer falls all the way now. I bent the sear spring for more tension on the center leaf of the that part of the spring and it seems to be working fine now. Thanks tuner!!!

 

[Jim Watson]

Suggest replacing it with a Colt or Nowlin spring, those Brazilian springs are pretty crude.
I have changed out both of mine.

 

[1911Tuner]

As per Jim's advice, Colt's OEM sear spring gets my vote.

 

[Grim Peeper]

Ok I will def order a new sear spring thanks again! BTW Ive always kept my 1911 loaded cocked and locked could this have been the reason for the spring failure?

 

[1911Tuner]

No. The sear spring's stress under tension is pretty much the same, regardless.