I surely would like an angel to come down and secure this guide rod and spring in my new gun.
It is driving me to using nasty words and stuff.
I've faced nasty guide rod springs before, in Colt Officer's model and others, but this one is a bugger. Wish that Sig had come up with a short plastic sleeve to contain the spring close to the muzzle, but...
Any hints would be most welcome.. thx.

Like any guy who needs help, I called Sig Customer Service. A very nice guy mentioned that if my finger strength wasn't enough to install that wickedly strong guide rod spring...then perhaps I needed some LEVERAGE.
I went to my work bench, got a smallish pair of vise grips, wrapped the vise grip jaws with electrical tape to prevent scratches on the guide rod head, and went to it.
With the second try, within about 45 seconds, the guide road was seated and all is right with the world....well, sorta. I called them back and said many thanks...
MORAL: Don't hesitate to go to the big guys when you've run out of ideas...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: sonnydaze,

As it turns out, I am likely one of the few that has a hand strength problem. Using a vise grip with taped jaws helps me to overcome this difficulty.
My problem has a medical history which I am handling as well as I can.
Life goes on. BTW, I cannot easily rack my Sig P365 and it remains unfired in its case. It will eventually be sold uncarried and unfired.
Fortunately my Legion P938, being hammer-fired, is much easier to manipulate, and this baby makes me look like a pro at the range.
Life is good.

Easy. Your first thing is to insert a .22 cal cleaning rod from the muzzle end. Then this is used as a guide for the spring. Slide the spring over the cleaning rod before you apply force to the P938 guide rode to compress the spring. The .22 cal cleaning rod prevents the flexing that makes the recoil spring insertion so frustrating. Try it. Suprisingly simple.

Regarding weak hand strength: I am 80, what works best for me is to sell your striker fired pistols and get hammer fired pistols. Cock the hammer with your thumb. Insert an EMPTY mag. Then rack the slide. You don’t have to overcome the hammer spring and the EMPTY mag will lock the slide rearward. Then you are good to proceed normally.