I’m loosing my mind. The hammer strut on the government should be the same length as the hammer strut on the officer correct?

Springfield sent me a replacement hammer strut because mine snapped. They also sent a main spring retaining pin because that was lost as well. I’m putting it back together and the hammer is not under spring tension throughout its entire travel. Almost as if the hammer strut is too short. It is a government model.

With the exception of minor variations between manufacturers, 1911 hammer struts are generally the same length for Government, Commander and Officer sized pistols.

Now I really don’t know what the problem is. Thank you for confirming.

Are you sure you re-installed the cup the strut sits in inside the mainspring housing?

For clarification, does this occur while cocking the hammer on a fully assembled pistol? If so, since you replaced the mainspring retaining pin, I'd remove the mainspring housing and disassemble. Check for any burrs or corrosion on the mainspring cap or inside of the housing which may be causing the spring to bind. While unlikely, I can't think of too many conditions which would result in inconsistent hammer tension. Please provide a bit more detail and we'll attempt to trouble shoot. Thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
Are you sure you re-installed the cup the strut sits in inside the mainspring housing?

Excellent point. Here's a photo of the internals for comparison.

Does your Springfield have the ILS system (the lawyer lock on the mainspring housing). If so, I believe it uses a different sized hammer strut.

Chris

Yes it does have the ILS lock. All 3 parts are in the housing correctly and nothing is binding or corroded. I will call Springfield and inquire about the hammer strut differences. I can’t see any other reason for this to happen.

I called Springfield Armory today and I was told that with the locking mainspring housing, no retainer is used to hold the spring in. The hammer struts are not different lengths. You insert a pin from the outside of the mainspring housing to hold everything captive during assembly, and remove it when it’s assembled.

So there’s no Mainspring Pin? The pin at the top of the photo above. And the mainspring cap just rides inside the housing? That’s weird.

Sounds like an excellent excuse to send it to Bruce Gray for some custom work.



-Rob