Llama IX-A (1911 like) Troubles

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A friend asked my opinion on this one before he bought it some years ago.
I told him it could be troublesome. So of course he bought it for a good deal.
Boy, I was right.

He got a job in Germany and sign over it to me.
Whoever had it before him had pretty much made it unusable.
Mainspring was really setup up badly and took much of my spare time to get right. Has a nice safe trigger now.

Next was feeding and extracting problems even with 230gr fmj.
Chased my tail tuning original mag and a Triple K mag for it. Eventually found the extractor was worn down. Replacement it with with a part that I had to drill the pin hole for, Which was to tight by the way, had to enlarge the hole to prevent it from binding on it's pin.

Then I find out the firing pin sometimes get stuck in the bolt face after firing and prevents the rim of the next round moving all the way up on the bolt face.
Stoned the sides of the tip and de-burred the bolt face. Worked much better after that, but I still had the pin get stuck once afterward.
Will have to take it apart again and do some more stoning.
How do the experienced gunsmiths feel about using oil or grease in the firing pin channel? Least temporarily.

Might have to consider heat treating and then annealing the mag lips once i get it completely reliable.


L-R: Slide, Firing Pin Spring, Firing Pin, Firing Pin Retainer, Rear Sight and ball bearing, cone tip set screws for windage.
 
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How does the firing pin spring look? I wouldn't be surprised if it had been shortened, causing the problem.
 
Oil/grease in the FP channel is normally not a good idea because all it does is attract powder residue and other assorted crud. If the FP is well polished, the FP spring is not kinked or weak and the FP hole has no burrs or an odd shape you should not need any lube in that part of the gun. I would mike the end of the FP and the FP hole to make sure there is sufficient clearance for the length of the pin that runs through the slide. While you don't want the clearance to be sloppy if it is too tight even the slightest amount of residue will impede the retraction of the pin.
 
Had the firing pin jam in the bolt face again a few times tonight. Will take apart again. Will have to see about getting a long enough small diameter drill to clean up the firing pin hole which has rings around it on bolt face.
Area around rear of the firing pin on the hammer side seems to be peened into a slight oval too.
 
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Before doing ANYTHING to the firing pin opening for heaven's sake take the 10 or 15 bucks and BUY A NEW FIRING PIN or whatever a Llama FP costs. Screw up the breech face and you have a registered paperweight.
If the other end is peened out of shape the rest of it is probably deformed in some way too.
DO NOT PUT GREASE OR OIL IN THE FP CHANNEL.
 
Gunparts is the only one I have found that have some of the parts I needed. I ordered from them what they had available when I needed them, but not all the parts are available at one time. Western parts none. Epps none.Etc......

From Gunparts so far: Tripple K mag. extractor (pin I made from drill bit), barrel link and pin.
Just ordered from Them some more parts for the Llama, Izh35M and S&W M52.
 
Firing pin and firing pin channel in slide were rough and had peening issues. Think firing pin was rotating and different edges were making contact making it stick. Seems better after some more stoning. Now waiting for a newer mag catch. Mags pop out after a few rounds.
 
Firing pin issue resolved.

Then found mag latch was causing some other issues. Ordered one from Gunparts.
Rough mating surface to the frame.
Binding in multiple spots. Screw head and Double hole opening had to be stoned to get a smoother catch-free fit.
Used some Swiss Automatenfett grease and it works pretty well.

Now problem is original magazine's latch opening is a tad oversize (wear) causing it to pop out. My Triple K mag is fine, for now.
IMG-20181027-142206.jpg
 
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These guns needed work when they came new in the box.
I sold quite a few of them because of the price and extra
magazines were cheap to buy. The final polishing on contact
surfaces had to be re done. Star did a better job of this
 
It's turning out to be a real project.
Love shooting it, when it works, but ending up 100% reliable is in itself a course in gunsmithing.

Latest issue is both original and Triple K magazines were auto ejecting out of the frame on the first shot's case ejection.

I have filed the ridge/flange around the mag latch release button to allow it sit a bit deeper into the frame and have stretch out the mag catch's spring.

Seems better now with stiffer of the two springs I have for it using dummy rounds, but wondering if mag follower spring might be pushing on mag latch to make it release.
I can see it(spring coils) protruding into the mag latch slot on the magazines.

Anyone have any other ideas?
 
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