how do i get ambi saftey of 1911

[reaperilan]

I have a charles dally 1911 that i cant get the left side of the ambi saftey off. its a blued government model with front & rear cocking serrations,skeleton hammer,trigger, staked gi sights, & bevertail grip safety. i've removed the slide and am able to get the right side off but not the left. i've tried wigglin, pryin, tappin with punch, everything just short of a cuttin torch. i want to put a better lighter trigger in it but cant proceed till i get the safety off.

 

[rondog]

I don't have any 1911's with ambi safeties, but with regular thumb safeties you remove the slide, cock the hammer, move the safety to the half-way point between full-on and full-off, and pull it out.

Might have to wiggle it a little, or poke on the end of the shaft with a broken toothpick.

 

[dmazur]

I've never tried it without removing the mainspring housing, three-leaf spring and grip safety. By the time you do that, you can wiggle everything around without fighting spring tension. As mentioned, sometimes you have to wiggle it to get it to back out. (There isn't much to grab, especially on the original "minimal" safety design.)

I did a trigger replacement on a couple of 1911's, and it involved taking the silly things apart quite a few times as I didn't have the jigs at that time.

If you're going to replace the trigger, quite a bit of the pistol has to come apart, as I'm sure you're aware. This includes the mainspring housing, three-leaf spring, grip safety, thumb safety, sear, disconnector, and magazine release.

I found the magazine release to be quite tricky, the first time. After that, I considered it design genius...

 

[loop]

To replace the trigger you have to detail strip the frame. You start that by removing the mainspring housing. Then you take out the three-leaf spring and then the grip safety. At this point it should be relatively easy to remove the thumb safety.

If you can't get the thumb safety out, make sure the pistol is cocked, move it slowly up and down and pull. If it does not hit a point where it feels as though it will move out of the frame apply pressure to the pin on the right side of the frame with a plastic punch or frayed toothpick or some other such non-marring object. When it slips a bit to the left simply pull it out.

The pin that holds the sear and disconnetor is the next thing to come out. It should be easy with nothing more than finger pressure.

The mag catch is next. Push it through from the right and insert a screwdriver and turn it a bit to the left (is it left or right?). It doesn't matter, you can only turn it one way. Once it is out you can remove the trigger.

Properly fit the new trigger and reassemble. Or, see your local gunsmith. He can do it all in about 10 minutes.

 

[AZ_Rebel]

Ther hammer needs to be cocked in order for the thumb safety to be removed. As stated previously the thumb safety must be moved part way between the "on" and "off" position and wiggled out past the detent

I've never tried it without removing the mainspring housing, three-leaf spring and grip safety. By the time you do that, you can wiggle everything around without fighting spring tension.

Removing the mainspring housing makes it more difficult to remove the thumb safety because it keeps the hammer in the cocked position.

And.... how do you remove the grip safety before removing the thumb safety? The thumb safety pin holds in the grip safety.....:banghead:

And neither the sear spring or the mainspring puts "tension" on the thumb safety.....:banghead:

 

[dmazur]

And.... how do you remove the grip safety before removing the thumb safety? The thumb safety pin holds in the grip safety

You're absolutely right!

I should have dug a 1911 out and done it while I was typing. I've never tried to remove the thumb safety without first removing the mainspring housing. I didn't know it made it easier.

I looked around and found an old "Form A-912-2", which was the 4 page instruction manual Colt used to include with their Pre-80 1911's. By golly, it says (in a section after describing taking the slide off for routine cleaning) -

TO COMPLETE DISMOUNTING The safety lock is removed by cocking the hammer; then grasping the thumb piece of the safety lock between the thumb and index finger, steadily pull outward and at the same time move back and forth. Lower hammer (don't snap) and push out hammer pin using the safety lock. Remove hammer and then, using the hammer strut, push out the housing pin; then withdraw mainspring housing which contains mainspring. After pushing the sear pin from right to left, using the hammer strut for this purpose, the sear and disconnector may be removed. To remove magazine catch, its checkered left end must be pressed inward far enough to permit the catch lock to be turned to the left and out of its seat in the receiver, using the long leaf of sear spring, when the catch with its lock and spring may be removed. Care should be taken not the let the lock and spring jump away when released. The trigger may then be removed rearward from the receiver...

I'm embarassed to admit that things are probably easier if you follow the instructions.