Colt Defender safety plunger

[Mark_Mark]

anybody know how to tune the safety plunger on a Defender?

or a aftermarket plunger suggestion?

I don’t like the way the safety engages. Very loud and clicky. I feel like it takes too much force to engage. Compared to my STi guns

 

[BBBBill]

I feel like it takes too much force to engage.

Several things affect the sound/feel of the thumb safety going on/off safe. And that is separate from/comes after fitting to the sear.

First verifythat the fit to the sear is correct. A properly fit thumb safety should allow zero movement of the sear with the safety engaged when the trigger is pulled.

Once that is verified you can check the slide stop plunger, plunger spring, and safety plunger for proper dimensions and tip condition. The tips should be smoothly rounded and reasonably hard. I've seen many that were rough with machining marks and too soft/easily marred/deformed. The spring should be of the correct length with a slight kink in the middle to prevent launching itself into orbit. The kink is in the GI specs. The plunger tube should be of the correct length, correctly reamed for the plungers and spring with the forward detnet plunger seat in the correct location. The plunger tube should be firmly attached to the frame with correct staking. The rivets on the back of the tube are often too short and incorrrectly flared (sometimes not flared at all). The holes in the frame should be chamfered from the magwell side to provide space for the rivets to flare. Check the back side of the thumb safety shield for burrs/rough machining and smooth with a fine cut file or stone as needed. Observe the detent in the nose of the thumb safety. It should be deep enough to secure the plunger tip when the safety is down/off with a ramp to allow the plunger to ride out when placing the gun on safe. Look at the corner below the detent. That corner needs to provide some resistance when the plunger rides over, but it can be too sharp, making it too hard/stiff to move the safety. You may need to address these areas after the next step.

Now strip the fire control parts from the frame and reinstall the plungers, springs, and thumb safety along with the slide, barrel, and slide stop. In this step you are eliminating any interferance fro mthe internals so that you can focus on the feel of the safety parts. Work the safet up and down slowly, closely observing the interaction of the parts and feeling/visually identifying where those tight spots are. The earlier look at the thumb safety when it was off the gun should correlate with what you see/feel now. You can use a Dremel with a fine rubberized polishing point to relieve the detent bottom corner of the safety plunger is too hard to get past the edge. You can deepen the detent if the plunger is too easy to move out of the detent. Yuo can soften the corner below the detent if the plunger is too hard to get over that corner.

Dimensioned drawing are available online from various sources as a free download. The Rio Benson drawings are the ones I use most. If you cannot find them send a private message and I will email them to you.

 

[Mark_Mark]

Several things affect the sound/feel of the thumb safety going on/off safe. And that is separate from/comes after fitting to the sear.

First verifythat the fit to the sear is correct. A properly fit thumb safety should allow zero movement of the sear with the safety engaged when the trigger is pulled.

Once that is verified you can check the slide stop plunger, plunger spring, and safety plunger for proper dimensions and tip condition. The tips should be smoothly rounded and reasonably hard. I've seen many that were rough with machining marks and too soft/easily marred/deformed. The spring should be of the correct length with a slight kink in the middle to prevent launching itself into orbit. The kink is in the GI specs. The plunger tube should be of the correct length, correctly reamed for the plungers and spring with the forward detnet plunger seat in the correct location. The plunger tube should be firmly attached to the frame with correct staking. The rivets on the back of the tube are often too short and incorrrectly flared (sometimes not flared at all). The holes in the frame should be chamfered from the magwell side to provide space for the rivets to flare. Check the back side of the thumb safety shield for burrs/rough machining and smooth with a fine cut file or stone as needed. Observe the detent in the nose of the thumb safety. It should be deep enough to secure the plunger tip when the safety is down/off with a ramp to allow the plunger to ride out when placing the gun on safe. Look at the corner below the detent. That corner needs to provide some resistance when the plunger rides over, but it can be too sharp, making it too hard/stiff to move the safety. You may need to address these areas after the next step.

Now strip the fire control parts from the frame and reinstall the plungers, springs, and thumb safety along with the slide, barrel, and slide stop. In this step you are eliminating any interferance fro mthe internals so that you can focus on the feel of the safety parts. Work the safet up and down slowly, closely observing the interaction of the parts and feeling/visually identifying where those tight spots are. The earlier look at the thumb safety when it was off the gun should correlate with what you see/feel now. You can use a Dremel with a fine rubberized polishing point to relieve the detent bottom corner of the safety plunger is too hard to get past the edge. You can deepen the detent if the plunger is too easy to move out of the detent. Yuo can soften the corner below the detent if the plunger is too hard to get over that corner.

Dimensioned drawing are available online from various sources as a free download. The Rio Benson drawings are the ones I use most. If you cannot find them send a private message and I will email them to you.

WOW! thanks for the write up! it’s packed with tons on information and I need to go though it properly. I’ll post photos of the steps you recommend, just to make sure I’m understanding it correctly.

Give me a few, and thanks again!

 

[Mark_Mark]

here is the plunger and safety.

turning safety off is smooth

turning safety on is rough and requires more force than I would like. Very positive but not smooth

 

[Steve in Allentown]

Here is the plunger and safety. Turning safety on is rough and requires more force than I would like. Very positive but not smooth

Holy crap! That's one ugly looking mess. Did you buy this pistol new? The detent in the safety looks badly damaged. You might be able to do some micro surgery on it using diamond dental burrs but you might be better off just fitting a brand new safety. I suggest EGW.

This is what the detent is supposed to look like. You adjust the amount of force required to push the safety up into the ON SAFE position by gently addressing the lower edge of the detent.

 

[Mark_Mark]

Holy crap! That's one ugly looking mess. Did you buy this pistol new? The detent in the safety looks badly damaged. You might be able to do some micro surgery on it using diamond dental burrs but you might be better off just fitting a brand new safety. I suggest EGW.

This is what the detent is supposed to look like. You adjust the amount of force required to push the safety up into the ON SAFE position by gently addressing the lower edge of the detent.
View attachment 996833

bought it used! I’ll just grind and buff and file it death.. then get new parts

 

[BBBBill]

Holy crap! That's one ugly looking mess.

Indeed!

bought it used!...

Does it properly block the sear from moving? Like ZERO movement?

 

[Mark_Mark]

Indeed!





Does it properly block the sear from moving? Like ZERO movement?

how do I test the sear movement?

 

[Mark_Mark]

just look on YT on how to check sear movements. hammer back, safety on, pull trigger, safety off, put hammer to ear, pull hammer back even more, listen for click.... no click

 

[Steve in Allentown]

just look on YT on how to check sear movements. hammer back, safety on, pull trigger, safety off, put hammer to ear, pull hammer back even more, listen for click.... no click

That works but you can also remove the grip safety to visually observe the sear and grip safety engagement as you pull the trigger with the hammer cocked.

If you "paint" the safety's engagement lug with a blue Sharpie, you can see if there is contact between it and the sear when flicking the safety on and off. "B" in the pic below shows where the blue has been worn away from contact with the sear. Not my best fitting job but still totally functional.

 

[Mark_Mark]

That works but you can also remove the grip safety to visually observe the sear and grip safety engagement as you pull the trigger with the hammer cocked.

If you "paint" the safety's engagement lug with a blue Sharpie, you can see if there is contact between it and the sear when flicking the safety on and off. "B" in the pic below shows where the blue has been worn away from contact with the sear. Not my best fitting job but still totally functional.

View attachment 996949

I’ll give that a try!