calling 1911tuner to the service desk!

[ID_shooting]

Howdy folks,

It is not secret I "dumped" my kimber last month and got a DW PMA. Far superior 1911 IMHO but that is for another thread. Here is my only dislike...

It came with a two piece guide rod that you have to take apart to disassemble the pistol. The guide rod is so long that your can not turn the barrel bushing without removing the first half of the rod with an allen wrench. I hate that!

How tough would it be to replace it with a one piece that allows you to depress the rod bushing and then turn the barrel bushing?

My goal is to be able to field strip the piece with out tools once I break in the barrel bushing.

If I swap out the two piece guide rod with a one piece, do I need to get a new rod bushing as well?

Are there accuracy/functionality advantages to the long two peice design?

Questions, comments, or suggestions?

 

[wally]

Yes the ones you describe are made, I have one in one of my 1911s but forget who made it, maybe it was Detonics. More convienent for takedown that's for sure. I've not seen any disadvantages over the "Wilson style" two piece like used in my Kimber TLE II and that I've put in most of my other 1911s.

I'd prefer the ones like you are looking for but I've never found another :-(
And its just not that big a deal that I'll search high and low for 'em, OTOH it'd be nice to know of a source for them.

--wally.

 

[1911Tuner]

Yew Rang?

VROOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM....OMG! OMG!
screeeeeeeeeech BANG ! *thump* *wham*....owwwwww...*groan*
Man! I gotta get me some retreads on these Reeboks.

Ah! Two-Piece guide rods. Looks trick, but can get to be a pain.
When my buds around here want to toss the allen wrenches, I usually
clean the threads, apply JB Weld, torque'em down, chuck'em up in the
lathe, and face off the ends about .150-.160 inch, which turns'em into
one-piece rods that'll let the bushing swing past.

You can get a one-piece, that'll PROBABLY work as a drop-in, but about one in five are a shade too long. It's a tolerance stacking issue, and the same rod might work fine in a different pistol. The cure is to chuck it up in the
lathe and cut about a 64th off the front...OR...cut from the backside of the head to bring it down to around .085 inch thick, and take the rest off the front. Either way will work. The first method is the quickest and easiest.
Any machine shop can handle it in about 3 minutes.

Once in a while, you'll run into a guide rod head that needs to be whittled on to keep from contacting the slide rails, but that's not seen often enough to be a real concern...about one in 50 needs a little tweakin'.

And you asked:

If I swap out the two piece guide rod with a one piece, do I need to get a new rod bushing as well?

Nope...probably not. There's a slight chance of tolerances between the plug and a different rod creating some drag, but that's easy to adjust for
with a lathe and a smooth mill file. Highly unlikely though...
-------------------------------------

Are there accuracy/functionality advantages to the long two peice design?

Nope. No more than between the original stub guide rod and a full-length.
If you have a badly worn pistol, a FLGR seems to smooth things out a little and keep the slide tracking straighter...which does help with feed reliability
some...but for the most part, FLGRs are mainly gimmicks that have one
purpose...To sell. They do, however, make the pistol look better when the slide is locked back.

Hope this helps.

Tuner

 

[George Hill]

Is there anything wrong with the stubby little GI unit?
They always seem to work just fine for me.

 

[tc300mag1]

I want to know to George Ive always stuck with the stubbies to As ive read the one piece guide rods dont really help out at all since the spring never truely bind up ..Sort of a Answer looking for a problem

 

[1911Tuner]

Stubby

George asked:

Is there anything wrong with the stubby little GI unit?
They always seem to work just fine for me

Not a thing. They worked well for 3/4ths of a century. Whenever I
hear somebody say that the FLGR is a necessary piece of equipment
on a 1911, my response is "How did we EVER manage
without full-length guide rods?"

Cheers!

Tuner

 

[BluesBear]

The full length guide rod is not exactly a new creation. The original as designed by John Moses works well enough for me.

As has been said by those smarter than me, the recoil spring will not kink.
The only thing I wish they'd do to the recoil spring system is to put back the "dimple" that used to be in the GI recoil spring plug. You remember those? The dimple allowed you to "screw" the plug onto the spring so it didn't go spazoomzing across the room.

 

[McNutt]

Do any of you have a link to a GI rod and plug? Who sells those?

 

[sm]

I agree with stubby G.I. Set up...

Yep Agree with the dimples...on plugs and magazine followers...what's wrong with dimples anyway? Seems like the more we "fix" something...we end up really needing to fix it.

Besides - launching the mag plug out a shotgun is a bunch easier to find... GI style UNdimpled plugs end up in the darndest places...

 

[1911Tuner]

re: Stuff

Roger that Bluesbear...Did ya know that the Norinco 1911s came with the dimpled, screw-on plug? Yep. It took the Chinese to show us how
to build a real pistol again.

Later on!

Tuner

McNutt, Ed Brown makes a nice set for about 23 dollars + shipping
from Brownells. I'll post the toll-free and the part numbers later today.

Hey hey sm! Good ta see ya, mah fren.

 

[Old Fuff]

I only made the stupid mistake of buying a (1911 style) pistol with a full-length rod once. It went into the trash pile as quickly as I could replace it with a Browning original. If the pistol is correctly fitted up the long rod doesn't do anything necessary, and they are a PITA any time you need to disassemble the gun. I suppose you do have to use them in ultra-compacts with coned barrels and no bushings. To each his own ...

 

[Bruce H]

BluesBear I love your highly technical term for plug travel across the room.

 

[1911Tuner]

Across the Room

BluesBear said:

allowed you to "screw" the plug onto the spring so it didn't go spazoomzing across the room.

I got spazoomed smack between the eyes once. That'll make ya
appreciate those little dimples.

 

[sm]

I hereby nominate spazoomzing be added to the THR Library of definitions...do I hear a second ? < cups hands - listening> gee -seems as if we have thirds, fourths, fifths..

Okay , where is moderator when you need one?

I gave one FLGR to a nephew to play with, incoporated with the Lego's, Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs...yep looked out of place there as well...nor did it fit in, work any better than the "original designs" he was playing with. IIRC that one was relagated to being a hinge pin for a gate, then again that may have been another FLGR.

Got a buddy with a 'rinco 1911, same buddy that traded the Belgium BHP for a Glock. He knows if he decides to get rid of the 'rinco ( or anything else) to holler. I will resort to blackmail if need - Even tho' the "stripper" was a tasteful joke his wife was in for a B-day( his partners,staff, embarrassed him at office , the stripper being the ones that just get to tasteful PJs) ...I got one polarid some forgot about. Figure its worth a 'rinco...may get the Model 19 as well...