Need help Colt 1911 US Army Mod .45

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This gun has been almost totally apart, cleaned and, I found 2 very small chips of steel (like hairs)in the vicinity of the hammer to sear contact area, and a little rust, just off the bearing surfaces.

After test firing it, oiled really well by the way, one time the trigger was left floppy, but the hammer was at full cock, and two times the hammer followed the slide forward, but the gun didn't fire.

What could be the main causes for this malfunction?

To me it seems as if either the sear moves to slow, or the angle to catch the hammer isn't exactly correct, but it appears by eye to be ok.

So the question is what applies to a hammer following the slide down, and or leaving the hammer cocked, and having the trigger floppy loose?

Working the slide by hand I can not duplicate the problem.

One more question not really related is... Just how is the tube that holds the safety detent and the mag release detent held to the gun?

I had the detents pins and spring out, and think I see a sort of a pair rivets.

The tube is slightly wiggly, and I don't think it is supposed to be. What tool is used to swell these rivets, 'IF' that's what they are?
 
Thank you for the reply and the links. I will buy a spring and perhaps have a go making the tool, since I need it one time.

Can you tell me how snug to the frame the plunger tube should be? I assume no wiggle....?
 
You better find a good gunsmith locally, and have him look it over. Those "hairs" of metal from the hammer/sear area have me worried.

I know that the hammer/sear contact can be damaged by repeatedly releasing the slide with the slide stop, with no ammo in the gun or magazine, and letting the slide slam forward. Does the gun have a history of that treatment?

The last thing you need is a good 1911 with a defective ignition system.

And have the plunger tube staked by the gunsmith, don't try to rig up a contraption to do it yourself just to save a couple bucks. Those old war guns are climbing in price daily, and you might have a valuable one. Don't risk damaging it any more just to save some money.
 
rondog, I appreciate the sentiment, really, but I have done a bit of gun repair and am a x foreign car tech, with access to a full blown machine shop. I would simply make a tool like the one shown.

The hairs are more like whiskers maybe 128"x 1/16" long.

The history is grim. This gun was stolen long ago, and returned recently. It got no care during this time, and is some what rusty on the frame and slide.

I am not the owner but my landlord is.

When I cleaned it I soaked it a week in safety clean, and then took it apart.

The plunger tube and ejector were the only parts left on the frame. Every other part was taken out and cleaned well.

I have several magnification lamps and other devices, and am pretty fair with hand tools, stones, and the like as well.

Because i can't see into the moving parts well and have no book for this gun, causes me to ask questions.

I suspected the spring, but was seeking a better educated guess.

Currently i am between jobs and have time to make a simple clamp, which saves time and money. Today for nothing better to do I made a aluminum bracket to hold a air pressure gauge on my motor bike, and it is as bright as a mirror now. Looks factory..

The LL is a full blown machinist, and the shop is right here.. I ask and he will make me anything, and I get to help hands on. I am quick at learning and I do some things better and faster than he can. mainly we work in T 6061 aluminum like 4x8 sheets like ply wood at 3/4" thick, or stainless, milling, turning and welding in tig.

So I won't be butchering this gun. When it functions correctly it will be stripped, buffed and polished to be hot blued.

This gun is pre WW-2 i think and I just happen to have a Remington Rand, so I really understand.

Around here I am mainly in the Black Power room, and have had one man from here send me his broken colt clone 1856 shooter to fix. Since I am not a real gun smith I don't charge a dime.. To me it is a hobby sort of thing and so far about 2 guns a year.
 
Totally missed this..... The Consolidated 1911 Clinic Thread that tells me all I need now.. So maybe I will have better questions.
 
Plunger Tube!

Don't attempt to install that Plunger tube on your own.
1911's are inherently weak in this area.
It should be installed by a capable and trusted pistol smith!
You may consider having it TIG welded.

Dutch1911
 
Even a "somewhat rusty" pre WW II Colt 1911 is something I would want a knowledgeable collector to see before I started DIY work like staking (or welding!) the plunger tube and buffing to hot blue. It might be worth more as is than prettied up.
 
+1

It is going to be worth a lot more in it's present condition then after any modifications to the finish.

Weld the plunger tube on a GI mil-spec gun?
Shirley, you jest!
 
I understand your abilities and access to everything, but please consider you can easily turn a $2000 gun into a $200 gun very quickly. Get it looked over first, before doing anything to it.
 
Ok I will dig up the serial number and do some research. How ever I am not the first guy in there...

Someone else long before me worked this gun over, but I don't know why.

The slide as you guys know has a center rail where there is a notch for the disconnector.

Someone made a ruler like marking there, for some sort of referance.

It goes in 1/4" to a total of 1 and 1/4 inches.

The frame rails where the slide rides have been altered to be wider as well.

There is no telling who or when this work was done.

The slide has been re-blued already once.

The frame is a rusty color brown where most hand contact has been, and over all both the frame and slide are lighty pitted from the abuse.

I pulled the sear spring and set it in a vice lightly. Then set up a dial indicator and zeroed '0' it.

Then I bent with care the left longest sear spring untill I moved it to get a reading of 0.002 from where it was IN.

Test firing this time was successful.

I have no intent to weld anything on this gun now or ever, because nothing ever was welded to this type of gun in the first place, so far as I know.

The clamp tool appears like a flaring tool but a little different.

I can see the clamp is supporting the plunger tube on the link provided, and that the flaring should be done with a light hand. To just snugg if I am not mistaken.

I am well aware of what ham fisted Americans do when they want something tight. I have repaired a heck of a lot of damge because things were too tight.

If anyone is curious the ser # is 611xxx, so I will research this, but I haven't high hopes this gun is worth anything like 2 grand.. maybe 500 bucks tops...

It won't be a closet queen either, but would be put up nicely and cared for, shot on occasions.
 
Just letting those who care, that this 1911 Black Army is worthless as a collector's piece. It has been ruined totally to any collector value what so ever at less than 40%. Sometime long ago it was buffed on the slide and re-blued. The surface it should have is gone, and can't be replaced.

That surface was originaly there should have surface grinding marks, which long ago were buffed off. Then the slide was re-blued. Not the right color blue. A real gun smith altered the frame as well, and then the theft did damage to that finish, the bore, and allowed an over all rusty and pitted surface.

The gun can be cleaned up, polished and re-blued to be a fine shooter, but any history is long gone. So that is what will happen.

I took a few pics which are getting ready to be up loaded, next to my old 1945 vintage Remingtion Rand, which is also worthless as a collector's piece, but is a fine shooter as is.
 
Yup. Sounds like Bubba and The Punk have wiped out its collector interest and value. A collector will overlook some neglect on an otherwise original and desirable gun, which was what I thought to start with, but not the alterations you now describe.

This is the ideal sort of gun to fix up. Save a picture of it in its present state to show those who say it should have been left alone.
 
+1

And you don't need a vice and a dial indicator to bend one.

Just spring it a little with your fingers and keep trying it until the hammer doesn't follow when you drop the slide.
 
The top is a Remington Rand 1911 A1, with lots or ware and the wrong NRA grips, also it has a colt barrel, that probably was installed during military use, but no makings say so. There are no NRA markings on it either, but the NRA sold this and ones like it to Police Depts in the 80's, when the Govt went to the Beretta.
colts45n19_right.jpg
 
The lower is the 1911 Black Army as I have come to learn. The black was for the black oxide similar to bluing but black.

You can see the slide has been polished. The rust I have cleaned up a lot and it is harder to see in pictures than it is in real life.

During the 50's many guns were moddified by real gun smiths, I wouldn't call bubba. The doing so has us where we are today with models specific to a chore. Les Bear, Wilson, Kimber, are all the products of older real smiths, who made guns for law men, race guns and others from what they could get.

What they could get was mostly old military guns.. Bubba doesn't mark out rulers inside frames and spread rails. What happened was a sign of the times back then less the theft and real abuse..

colts45n19_left.jpg

And if 0.002" of a bend didn't fix the gun I can't say what did, as it functions at this point. I do plan to get a new sear spring just the same.

The owner is in the current slack times we all are in, and so I can't say when the gun will be polished and made as nice as it can be made.. albeit history gone. When that happens I will post pics again.

It will be what it is plain jane, no frills, but a good shooter.
 
Did you ever tighten the plunger tube? When the staking is done the tube needs to be supported on the outside to prevent crushing the tube. There were a few contour variations of the outside of the tube and the support would have differing profiles for this.
 
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