experiences installing VQ kit in a 22/45
Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 8:36 am
I found the other posts on installing the VQ kit very helpful so I thought I'd add my own.
The story is mostly uninteresting, installing the kit was pretty smooth. However when I got it to the range I was getting failures to recock the hammer. I suspected the pretravel adjustment, but somehow I managed to forget my allen wrenches at home, what a dope.
When I got home, I scoured Bullseye's posts and found one where he recommended removing the receiver and working the hammer with your thumb. That is an educational exercise and worth spending an hour or two of playtime on.
When I had been testing the trigger adjustments during the install, the mistake I made was that I didn't keep the trigger pulled in while cycling the bolt. Although you can test the trigger break that way, all of the interesting stuff happens after the break.
With the receiver off, you can swipe your right thumb back over the hammer and disconnector to simulate the motion of the bolt. Then as you let go of the trigger you can see whether the disconnector resets and pops back up.
What I noticed while doing this exercise was that the disconnector was not reliably popping back into position. If I pushed it up and down by the hammer, it felt gritty.
This was when I remembered that I had attempted to smooth the trigger by knocking the high spots off the outside of my disconnector. The stone I used was too coarse and left fine scratches in the disconnector where it touches the frame. The combination of those scratches and the lighter plunger spring in the VQ kit meant the disconnector was hanging where it rubbed the thick frame support for the hammer pin.
This was clearly my fault, but I imagine that you might see a similar problem if you had grit on your disconnector.
Anyhow, I polished out the scratches and put the factory plunger spring back in, and now all is well. I'm going to try the VQ spring again soon now that I've got some better polishing supplies.
I now understand how the VQ plunger spring can have an effect other than lightening the trigger pull- it is also involved in resetting the disconnector. I've read in a couple of places people recommending that in the 22/45 you reuse the factory plunger spring, I guess this is why.
Bullseye are there any hazards in polishing the spot where the disconnector rubs the frame on the 22/45?
The story is mostly uninteresting, installing the kit was pretty smooth. However when I got it to the range I was getting failures to recock the hammer. I suspected the pretravel adjustment, but somehow I managed to forget my allen wrenches at home, what a dope.
When I got home, I scoured Bullseye's posts and found one where he recommended removing the receiver and working the hammer with your thumb. That is an educational exercise and worth spending an hour or two of playtime on.
When I had been testing the trigger adjustments during the install, the mistake I made was that I didn't keep the trigger pulled in while cycling the bolt. Although you can test the trigger break that way, all of the interesting stuff happens after the break.
With the receiver off, you can swipe your right thumb back over the hammer and disconnector to simulate the motion of the bolt. Then as you let go of the trigger you can see whether the disconnector resets and pops back up.
What I noticed while doing this exercise was that the disconnector was not reliably popping back into position. If I pushed it up and down by the hammer, it felt gritty.
This was when I remembered that I had attempted to smooth the trigger by knocking the high spots off the outside of my disconnector. The stone I used was too coarse and left fine scratches in the disconnector where it touches the frame. The combination of those scratches and the lighter plunger spring in the VQ kit meant the disconnector was hanging where it rubbed the thick frame support for the hammer pin.
This was clearly my fault, but I imagine that you might see a similar problem if you had grit on your disconnector.
Anyhow, I polished out the scratches and put the factory plunger spring back in, and now all is well. I'm going to try the VQ spring again soon now that I've got some better polishing supplies.
I now understand how the VQ plunger spring can have an effect other than lightening the trigger pull- it is also involved in resetting the disconnector. I've read in a couple of places people recommending that in the 22/45 you reuse the factory plunger spring, I guess this is why.
Bullseye are there any hazards in polishing the spot where the disconnector rubs the frame on the 22/45?