Mikhail Weiss
Member
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2009
- Messages
- 509
Here's something weird. The right-side slide lock lever of my girlfriend's S&W M&P9c broke off during a recent range visit, which wasn't noticed till the pistol was field stripped for cleaning. (To be clear, it was the external tab itself that went bye-bye.)
The gun still functions fine without the right-side tab, as there is still one on the left side. The pistol is 3 years old and has about 15,000 rounds through it.
So I ordered a replacement part from Midway USA, the slide stop assembly (product #277172) shown here...
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/27...-m-and-p-compact-9mm-luger-357-sig-40-s-and-w
I swapped out the broken part with the new one (removing the locking block to make this easier before putting everything back together). After inspection, the GF then proclaimed that, (a) the slide no longer ran parallel to the frame, but was now slightly lower toward the muzzle and slightly higher in back, (b) the slide was now ever so slightly out of battery, (c) the trigger was ever so slightly out of position from where it had formerly been, (d) the slide was harder to rack. She blamed the new part.
I couldn't tell any difference after visual inspection and function testing, but at her suggestion I then replaced the new part with the old one.
Then I noticed this...
The old and broken slide stop assembly has a red-painted spring. The new one has a yellow-painted spring. (These are the springs that provide downward pressure on the slide stop assembly, preventing slide lock till the empty magazine follower presses upward on the slide stop.)
...and I noticed this...
The trigger bar with the new part installed sits higher in the frame than with the old. Basically, the top of the trigger bar with the new part installed sits parallel with the top of the frame. With the old part, it sits noticeably lower.
So now I have questions:
The gun still functions fine without the right-side tab, as there is still one on the left side. The pistol is 3 years old and has about 15,000 rounds through it.
So I ordered a replacement part from Midway USA, the slide stop assembly (product #277172) shown here...
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/27...-m-and-p-compact-9mm-luger-357-sig-40-s-and-w
I swapped out the broken part with the new one (removing the locking block to make this easier before putting everything back together). After inspection, the GF then proclaimed that, (a) the slide no longer ran parallel to the frame, but was now slightly lower toward the muzzle and slightly higher in back, (b) the slide was now ever so slightly out of battery, (c) the trigger was ever so slightly out of position from where it had formerly been, (d) the slide was harder to rack. She blamed the new part.
I couldn't tell any difference after visual inspection and function testing, but at her suggestion I then replaced the new part with the old one.
Then I noticed this...
The old and broken slide stop assembly has a red-painted spring. The new one has a yellow-painted spring. (These are the springs that provide downward pressure on the slide stop assembly, preventing slide lock till the empty magazine follower presses upward on the slide stop.)
...and I noticed this...
The trigger bar with the new part installed sits higher in the frame than with the old. Basically, the top of the trigger bar with the new part installed sits parallel with the top of the frame. With the old part, it sits noticeably lower.
So now I have questions:
- Do I have the wrong part? (It appears that this is a one-size-fits-all part for the M&P.)
- Did I goof up something during installation that would displace the trigger bar?
- Is breakage of this part a known issue (e.g. a known bad batch of parts), or the flukiest of flukes?
