disconnector bump on a SIG being ground down?

[ghostie]

I have a question for some of you guys that have been around the SIG pistols for ages...

Have you seen the disconnector get ground down to the point where it starts to affect the function of the gun?

For noobs, I mean the bump on the trigger bar that sticks up above the frame on the right side of the gun. When the slide is out of battery - the slide itself pushes this bump down and disconnects the trigger from the sear.

Here's my thing... I have two of the 229's. The older one is showing significant wear on the "bump" such that a notch has been carved out of it on the side of the bump closer to the frame - maybe a millimeter or two deep. I'll try and get some close-up pics of it tonight.

In testing the gun with snap caps, I noticed that once in awhile if you fire the gun.... hold the trigger back after firing.... and then cycle the slide so that a new snap cap is chambered... the hammer will return forward with the slide.

O.k., that is bad. "WTF" is going off in my head. Is the hammer and sear buggered? No, I've checked that out. The next test settled it though - at least I think so.

One of the things it says in the SIG armorer's manual is to check and see if the trigger will have any effect on the hammer when the slide is out of battery. This is the test to see if the disconnector is working. With this gun, you actually can release the hammer when the gun is partially out of battery. Not at any place on the range of movement of the slide, but when the slide is about 5mm or so out of battery you can release the hammer. I duplicated these tests on the newer gun (which is only about 5 months old, although it is being shot a about 250 rounds a week as well) and I could not duplicate the results of the hammer going forward with the slide when the trigger is held down, or being able to release the hammer when the gun is slightly out of battery. The disconnector bump on the newer gun is more polished on this gun than "ground down" like on the older gun.

I will post some pics tonight hopefully... but I just want to see if anyone else has had this problem and if they think my diagnosis is correct. I can get a new trigger bar from Brownell's. It is like a $75 part though. And I've only had the gun for a year.

I think the 229 is a fabulous gun. It may just have become a victim of it's own success though, in that it has been shot so much since we got it. It has got to be around 12,000 to 13,000 rounds now. That is all since August 2007. The recoil spring was replaced about half way through that, and I am going to replace it again right away. Other than that it is the way it came from the factory. It still works fine with live ammo, we have never experienced any problems with it at the range. But testing it at home after cleaning it this came up. Now I'm worried that it might fire out of battery and really damage the gun. I guess it should be put on the injured reserve until I get a new trigger bar.

But my question remains... is that just part of the "deal" with these guns? The slide grinds the trigger bar down until the gun doesn't disconnect properly? Is there a way to slow this down with some kind of special lube or anything?

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[redleg]

You seem to have it diagnosed. As to wether the wear is premature, perhaps it was (you fired a fair number of shots, was there an equal amount of dry firing?). However it may have been an issue of tolerances/QC on the one part too. I have quite a few SIGs on the range, and have had a couple trigger bars break, but I have never worn one out.

 

[ghostie]

Thanks for that advice. I know that you have seen these guns through their life cycle on more than a few occasions.

It wasn't obsessively dry fired or anything, but there is no doubt that the cycling of the slide other than during live fire will have some effect on the overall wear of that part. I would always cycle it a few times after cleaning and oiling it. And it is going to be cycled at other times as well. It all seems a bit quick to me though.

I'll post some pics and hopefully I can get a good in-focus closeup shot of what the wear looks like. The fact that the slide is cutting a notch into the right side of the bump seems weird to me. You would think that this part would be designed so that the slide completely covers the bump and it has nowhere to go.

I checked the bottom of the slide to see if that is grinding off too, but no. Where the contact takes place, it has removed some of the finish on the slide (and the finish on the new SIG slides is not easy to scratch), but it looks completely flat.

Well, I'll get a new trigger bar and see how that goes. The trigger on this gun is fantatic. It feels a little bit crisper than the other 229, but that might be just because it is worn in nicely. Even if I have to replace trigger bars every 10,000 rounds I guess that is not the end of the world.

 

[capp325]

A picture would help.

 

[ghostie]

I tried to take some pictures of it tonight, but I'm having difficulty getting my camera to focus on something that small. If I can't come up with something I will draw a picture to illustrate what it looks like.

 

[EdGCNM]

Needless to say, these both sound like serious issues. If the gun fires out of battery it can blow up the gun, and if the hammer follows you could have a machine pistol. I'm glad you caught these, but they need to be fixed before you shoot the gun again IMO.

 

[ghostie]

Needless to say, these both sound like serious issues. If the gun fires out of battery it can blow up the gun, and if the hammer follows you could have a machine pistol. I'm glad you caught these, but they need to be fixed before you shoot the gun again IMO.

Yah, I think you are right. I'm putting the August 2007 gun (the one with the problem) on the injured reserve list for now. This is my favorite gun, so fortunately I have another one. I actually "sold" (in hindsight it turned out to be more like lent) this gun to my girlfriend after the frame cracked and warped on her VDP surplus Beretta. When I got the SIG 229 originally, everyone loved that gun. A number of my friends shot it a fair bit, and my girlfriend decided to switch to SIG as well - so we got two of them and the older one became hers around April 2008. I bought it back from her in the last two weeks because she decided to buy a Beretta 90-two instead (which we are picking up tomorrow - review to follow!). She likes SIG, but she seems to be a Beretta person at heart (for some strange reason that I don't quite understand... but then... everyone has their preferences I suppose).

I'm going to get a new trigger bar from Brownell's and install that (I can take apart the trigger no problem myself. No tools are required.) If the trigger will still drop the hammer out of battery then I will have to take it to Joe Dlask to figure it out. I am guessing quite strongly that the wear on the bump of the trigger bar is the culprit though.

 

[ghostie]

Well, I got a new trigger bar awhile back. I'm just getting around to posting about it now. I got it from Numrich. I tried to order it from Brownells but they sent me a message saying the manufacturer is not registered with the State Department, so they can't export it. Isn't the manufacturer SIG? I have bought OEM SIG parts from them (mags, springs, screws, etc.) in the past. Maybe this part is made by... who knows? Some metal shop. Anyway, here is what the part from Numrich looks like:

I looked at the new part, and the part in my older 229... it doesn't appear that the overall height of the bump is really any different between the worn one and the new one. The old one just has a bit of a notch (very slight) worn down on one side - and the top is polished shiney like on all SIGs. Next time I take that gun apart I will try and get a decent picture of it that shows the wear so you guys can understand what the hell I am talking about (not that easy to do some times).

I have been using that gun (the older of the two 229s) every weekend for the last 4 weeks now, shooting about 300 rounds per trip to the range, and I have not had the slightest hint of a problem with live ammo. I said I was not going to shoot it until I replaced the part, but I have backed away from that now. I'm not conviced that there is anything wrong with it now... at least nothing that effects it during live fire. It is only when I cycle it by hand with the snap caps that I could have a problem - and even that it is not every time or anything. Maybe one out of time times. I am thinking... maybe I'm just a "gun hypochondriac" and I need to mellow out. The gun has been working flawlessly at the range, all these thousands of rounds later. This is a video of me with that gun taken on September 27, 2008. Works great. The only weird thing in this video is... when I drop the first mag the slide goes forward. I might have bumped the slide release or something. I have had stuff like that happen on various guns over the years. It is not something that occurs any more than once in a blue moon with this gun. Overall... she's still a 100% reliable banger. The only problems I have ever noticed at the range was about 6 months ago the firing pin got stuck (i posted about that on here). I found out that this was from that cheap fiocchi ammo that was giving my P7 problems as well (and other guys on here had the same thing. That gold coloured primer covering rips off or melts and gets sucked back into the firing pin channel).
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=es5xKKlIDwM

Still love the P229 over anything else I've tried. I've got a P239 coming now as well... maybe that will be my new fav - but for now I have two 229's and I just love 'em.