Just took my Kimber apart down to the frame.

Jorah Lavin

New member
I feel like I just ran a couple miles or something, getting the hammer back into place was hard work.

I'd never tried getting into the components in the frame before, man there was a lot of lint and other dirt in there.

Later today I'll try actually shooting it, hope I didn't put anything in backwards! It seems to function right; I've done every test I could think of without actually firing it.

Do smiths have some sort of jig to hold everything in the right place while getting the hammer back in?

-Jorah
 
How did you have a problem getting the hammer in? I hope you didn't put in the grip safety and mainspring housing first, as that is the wrong way.

Jim
 
Reassembly of the 1911-type pistol receiver.

Jorah- - -

The following is furnished for your convenience. I'd be interested to know at which point you had a lot of difficulty with hammer installation. Begins with a completely disassembled receiver.

1. Slide in trigger

2. Put in mag catch. Hold in partly-depressed position and turn the little latch to release spring.

3. Put sear and disconnector together in proper relationship. (The sear with the two legs downward, belly of the curve forward.) Round end of disconnector uppermost, with bottom flat side forward. Place this sub-assembly in place. A pair of needle nose pliers or hemostats really helps but not necessary.

4. Place the narrower sear pin in from left side to hold above in place.

5. Put in hammer/strut assembly and insert larger, hammer, pin from the left.

6. Make sure the hammer is all the way forward. Flip the hammer strut upward, out of the way, and install the three-leaf flat sear spring. Make sure it seats with the hooked end on bottom in the transverse cut in the receiver.

7. Holding above flat spring in place, insert mainspring housing partway, to hold the flat spring in place.

8. Put grip safety into place. Again, make sure the hammer is forward.

9. Slide housing into place. It should go all the way up. If not, press against workbench to make it flush with bottom of receiver.

10. Insert mainspring housing retaining pin the press into place. You may meet some resistance, and possibly need a pin punch.

11. Insert safety axis pin, holding the grio safety in proper relationship. Work safety lug into receiver cut while moving safety up and down. You may need a thin tool to press the safety plunger forward into its tube to allow this.

This should take care of the receiver. If you have a stock Kimber, it probably has the full length guide rod. The spirit of John M. Browning will punish you by making this part of the reassembly very difficult.

Best,
Johnny
 
Ahhh, HAH!

I'm surprised I got it back together without breaking something!

I was following a very different set of directions I found online... Johnny's directions make a lot more sense.

Jim, you hit the exact problem! The directions I had said to reassemble in reverse order from the disassembly... trigger, mag catch, sear, disconnector, sear spring, mainspring housing, the little spring that rides between the slide safety and the slide stop, the hammer, and lastly the slide safety itself.

I'm VERY happy to hear that there is a better way to do it, I wouldn't want to do it my way more than once.

-Jorah
 
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