Installing a trigger bar spring on a PPK

[usdtmcs1]

Any hints on how to install a trigger bar spring on a Walther PPK? Do you try and wedge it in after putting in the trigger bar or install the trigger bar with the spring already in place? Thanks for your help!

 

[dfariswheel]

About the only way to get in in, is to install it WITH the trigger bar, NOT after.

 

[usdtmcs1]

That's what I was afraid of. I don't have any idea how I am going to keep that spring in place while installing the trigger bar. Thanks for the input!

 

[dfariswheel]

I'd give you some advice, but it's been too many years since I've done it, AND it's really one of those things you just have to work your way through.

I never had any luck trying to explain how it's done.

 

[Jim K]

Hi, usdtmcs1 and dfariswheel,

Halp!!

I usually try to help out, but this time I am stumped. I thought I knew the PP/PPK pretty well and I couldn't remember that part. So I checked good old Gun Parts and their catalog shows the part. Further, I recall once installing one of those springs in a PP or PPK. It is a V with a little projection on one end that goes into a tiny hole in the trigger bar.

So, just to refresh my memory, I tore down a PP. No trigger bar spring, and no hole in the trigger bar. Well that one was post-war, so I thought maybe they dropped it. Nope, none in a pre-war either. And none in a PPK, or in a PPK/S. So I am completely confused.

Does anyone know when or in what gun that spring was used? Does it date to the time of the 90 degree safety? The gun doesn't seem to need it, as the combination trigger and bar spring seems to work fine, but I am really scratching the old noggin.

Anyway, usdtmcs1, did your gun have one and it broke or was it never there and you just thought it should be? If it was there, can you determine a date or other info on the gun?

Jim

 

[dfariswheel]

The only ones I'm really familiar with were the Interarms American made versions, and the ones I worked on all had the spring.

I'm not to sure how well a PP series would work without the spring to push the draw bar up into proper connection with the sear block.

In the Interarms versions I worked on the spring interlocks into an undercut in the draw bar slot in the frame and a slot in the draw bar itself.

As I recall, I installed the trigger, trigger bar, trigger bar spring, and trigger spring sort of "all at once".

In other words, I "positioned" the trigger and trigger spring, then maneuvered the draw bar and it's spring into place in the frame, then slipped the bearing of the draw bar into the hole in the trigger, then worked the trigger into place and installed the trigger pin.

Like I said, it's been a while.

 

[Jim K]

Hi, Dfariswheel,

That is the normal setup with the trigger bar spring just an arm of the trigger spring, and with a matching groove in the trigger bar. I have never been able to get the trigger bar out, or put it in, without taking out the trigger. (Tips: pull the trigger guard down and put something like a popsicle stick in to hold it out of the way; don't remove the trigger guard. It doesn't matter which direction you remove or install the trigger pin from, but when installing it, the little groove goes to the left.)

But the GPC catalog shows a different type of spring (p/n 39A in the diagram) that they call the trigger bar spring. That is the one I seem to recall fitting in a hole in the bottom of the trigger bar but which doesn't appear in any of my pistols, German, French or American.

I don't know which spring usdtmcs1 is referring to, but maybe he will tell us and end my confusion.

Jim