1911-R1 Mainspring Housing

[DoubleSawbuck]

Hi, I'm new to the 1911 platform. I just bought my first 1911, a Remington 1911-R1. This gun has a flat mainspring housing, I'm used to my brother's SA GI 1911 with the arched mainspring housing. I haven't put that many rounds through the gun yet but the ones I have have been consistently low. I've read this may be due to the way I'm holding the pistol and it not having the bump in the back. I've watched several youtube videos on replacing this part and it seems pretty straight forward. Does anyone have any tips on doing this? This is a fairly new model for Remington but I believe it should be the same as every other 1911. It's has a series 80 safety if that makes a difference.

This is the MSH I was looking to buy
http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/default.aspx?productNumber=598351

Any other ones I should consider before my purchase? Any one's I should definitely avoid? I'm guessing the cheap ones will have fit and finish issues?

Thanks in advance for any assistance

 

[VinnAY]

Being a beginner I know that there are some methods to remove the MSH without doing a detail strip of the frame like using a rubberband to hold the gripsafety in place, that you can try.
I spent time with my gun and youtube and forums and eventually figured it out and learned to detail strip my frame and now I can pound it out in a few minutes time.
Im not sure of any differences with 70/80 series and the MSH but I can't imagine that there's any difference there to be aware of. I think you selected a fine product. You might consider, if you didn't know, that you can get MSH's with a number of patterns on them like checkering, serrations, golfball, etc..,
If you're on to that sort of thing.

 

[rozziboy18]

best advice i can give you is to remove the slide, lower the hammer all the way forward. then zip tie the grip safty down to keep the evil three fingered spring from moving about and ruining your day. then using a brass punch drift out the mainspring retaing pin and slide out the mainspring.
i just replaced one for a close friend and i dident see anything different from 90% of 1911 that cross my path.


good luck
brandon ogle


ps. uhhhhmmm ............PICTURES!!!! LETS SEE THAT NEW IRON!

 

[Sunray]

It's best to strip the frame. It's not difficult and requires no tools other than a punch. Releases any spring tension. Then there's one wee pin to remove and the housing will slide out.

 

[DoubleSawbuck]

Thanks for the information and advise, I got the Ed Brown MSH in the mail and tried to install it last night. It seems to be too tight for the frame and won't slide in more than 1/2". I spoke with someone at Ed Brown and they told me it was most likely a frame issue and if I were to exchange the part I'd run into the same issue. They suggested filing down the rails on the MSH a little at a time until it fits. I measured both the original Remington MSH and the Ed Brown MSH with a digital caliper and it looks as though the rails on the Ed Brown one are about .003" taller so it shouldn't take too much filing to make this fit. Anyone else ever run into this? I'm going to work on it this weekend wish me luck.
Picture to follow, hopefully with a fully functional, good looking arch MSH

 

[rcmodel]

Not uncommon with aftermarket parts in non-standard frames.

The only ones you can depend on always fitting right are GI mil-spec parts in mil-spec frames.

But hardly anyone but Colt still makes them that way.

Just file and try till it slides in.

You can color the MSH with a black marking pin so you can see what is tight where.
Where the black rubs off needs filing off until it doesn't.

rc

 

[DoubleSawbuck]

Just a little bit of filing and now it fits nicely.

 

[Old Shooter]

Looks like you did a nice job. Looks good.