My 1911 broke today - looking for advise

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diegocn

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I was shooting a practice stage at my club this Tuesday using my Norinco NP29 (9mm 1911) when the gun started malfunction.

I pull the trigger and it went click. Cycled the slide, saw the spent brass ejected and chamber a new round. The new round fired, then the next trigger pull went click again. Cycled the slide again, and the same thing happened for next 5 rounds. At this point I finished the stage, and took the gun apart.

Found that my barrel link broke on the loop where slide stop goes in:


Took it home, disassemble the gun, and saw more damage on the frame around where end of guide rod meets the frame:


And the barrel got a little nick:


So my understanding is that the broken barrel link would cause the barrel to not unlock in time, thus explaining the fail to eject. The damages on the frame and barrel are due to the guide rod not being held down in place by the barrel (since barrel didn't get pulled down by the barrel link).

Also I read somewhere that broken barrel link is an indication of timing problem. Either the barrel link was too short or the lower barrel lug was not shaped correctly, and resulted in barrel link absorbing all the recoil instead of letting the lower barrel lug striking the VIS.

So questions:
1. Is my understanding of what happened and what cause the barrel link breakage correct?
2. More importantly, is the frame still safe to use? I already ordered a set of new barrel links of different sizes and a new barrel link pin. Do I simply figure out the right barrel link, put it back on, and get back into action?
 
To add, the gun has been working fine for quite a while. I got it from a trade with unknown round count, and put a few thousand rounds through it myself. This is the first time it broke down like this.
 
Not a gunsmith so take this with a bit of salt
Norinco frame/ slide are made with tool steel (best metal to make a slide /frame from) ---- >maybe not pretty but very good

the other parts not so much
get the correct barrel link (of the correct length) / new pin and get a new extractor at the same time

put it all back togeather and go back shooting
 
Norinco 1911s never made it to the USA, or at least I've never seen one here. Of Norinco guns that have been brought into the States it has been said that quality of steel in critical parts is okay, but the use inferior metals for triggers and other parts.

The frame looked good to use to me, I'd probably get a non-Chinese made link.
 
Your on the right track with your fix. You are correct that the barrel lugs should be taking the force(yours have zero wear on them which would indicate the link was taking all the force) so that the link doesn't because as you already know they wont withstand that force repeatedly.
 
just having some fun said:
Not a gunsmith so take this with a bit of salt
Norinco frame/ slide are made with tool steel (best metal to make a slide /frame from) ---- >maybe not pretty but very good

the other parts not so much
get the correct barrel link (of the correct length) / new pin and get a new extractor at the same time

put it all back togeather and go back shooting
Click to expand...

I've also heard norinco 1911 has strong frames. I was surprised that the frame got peened not the guide rod.

JayCarver said:
Your on the right track with your fix. You are correct that the barrel lugs should be taking the force(yours have zero wear on them which would indicate the link was taking all the force) so that the link doesn't because as you already know they wont withstand that force repeatedly.
Click to expand...

Thanks, exactly the info I'm looking for.


jeff270 said:
Is that a crack at the end of that milled groove?
Click to expand...

I looked at it carefully again, it looks like a machining mark.

CoonT said:
A different perspective, maybe :D


Click to expand...

This guy's videos are all pretty awesome. Too bad he's not pumping them out faster. Being a chinese I can also relate to his accent too.
 
diegocn said:
I looked at it carefully again, it looks like a machining mark.
Click to expand...

And I don't see this area as a weak spot, I would be surprised to see a crack in this area. But on the same picture, I have the impression that only the lower part of the barrel lower lug come in contact with
vertical part of the frame. I am absolutely not an expert but I think this detail can have a negative impact on your pistol barrel, such as breaking your barrel lugs. But perhaps someone more experimented than me can give his opinion about it?
 
Thanks for all the great advise here.

I got an update - the parts to fix my gun arrived last week.

First is the Wilson Combat barrel link kit that contains 5 different sizes links. I tried to follow the guide in determining which barrel link size, but they all seem to be the same to me. So I just put in the milspec one (#3 .278 center to center).

I tried to put in the new brownells barrel link pin, but it was loose, so I reused the old one.

I also put in a wilson combat 9mm slide stop and wolff 14# recoil spring.

Test fired about 200 rounds of both factory and reloads, barrel link didn't break again so I guess I'm good.

I noticed the wolff spring is much longer than the old recoil spring, but the weight feels about the same when pulling back the slide. I did have one time when I rack the slide after inserting new mag, the slide only went about half way into battery (50% of the case still visible from ejection port). Pull back slide slightly and let go, it did chamber perfectly though. Not sure if that has to do with the new recoil spring.

On the positive side, the wilson combat slide stop for 9mm now makes the gun lock back on empty mag 100%. It used to be 0% with the stock Norinco extended slide release and brownells mags. I compared the 2 and noticed the WC slide stop to be longer on where it's suppose to catch the mag follower. So I take it that Norinco used .45 slide stop on their NP29 before.

The other thing I found is my slide stop catch slot on the slide is peening slightly both front and rear. This is after the gun broke and before I put new parts on. I've heard it can be a problem with the slide stop or the plunger spring. The WC slide stop put much more pressure on the plunger spring (it has a different angle and is a lot harder to go in than the old norinco slide stop). I'll see if the new slide stop fixes things. Should I just file off the existing peening? Would that prevent further peening?
 
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