Beretta 92FS Lock Block Breakage

[captkilowatt]

The first question I would like to ask is what if anything ,other than just wear, would cause a 92FS to fracture its lock block at one lug? This pistol was bought new from a large sporting goods store about 2 years ago for use in weekly IDPA matches and has maybe been fired 10,000 times with mostly factory standard pressure rounds.
The second question I would like to ask is what type of fitting might be required in the replacement of the broken lock block. I have changed barrels befor on 92FSs' and used the original lock block that was on the old barrel with the new barrel so as to have the lock block match the slide, but in this case the new lock block will not be mated to the slide of the repaired pistol.
Thanks

 

[James K]

The cause was a defect in the heat treatment and breakage was pretty common with the US made guns; AFAIK, the Italian guns did not have the problem. I had not heard of any breakages recently and assumed the trouble was corrected.

You should be able to just install a new one, but they are in the $40 range so you might call Beretta and maybe they will agree to fix the gun for free.

Jim

 

[Hommbs]

From what I understand the barrel torques when fired causing the block's left side to slam the frame. It may eventually fracture and break. The early blocks were machined with relatively sharp corners and stress cracked easier than the newer generation blocks which are machined with rounded corners. I had an early Italian first generation locking block break after many rounds fired too. I just swapped it out for another one and have been chugging along ever since. The maybe some compatibility issue beteen the generation of locking blocks and the pin that goes in them.

 

[JohnKSa]

The blocks eventually break. Some have been known to last 100K rounds or longer, but I believe that somewhere around 20K is probably more common. 10K rounds might be a little on the early side but I wouldn't immediately assume that it was any indication of a problem.

When you order the part it should come as a set with a plunger pin to fit it. If you order from Beretta that will happen automatically, otherwise you may need to specifiy. There should be no fitting required.