Para P-14 failure to fire, help!

[insidious_calm]

Ok, my normal carry gun decided to have a failure to fire sunday. Multiple times too, so I quit shooting. It is a box stock Para except for magna porting in the slide/barrel, and grips. To my dismay, Dawson Precision said they don't work on Para's that they didn't sell? So I've decided to see if I can do this myself. I ordered a couple videos from AGI, but in the meantime I thought I'd ask the experts on here.

The trouble is as follows, when shooting the gun, you pull the trigger and nothing happens. The hammer is back, all looks normal, but no go-bang. The trigger also has a weird sort of feel to it when this happens. I discovered that if I pushed the hammer down with my thumb and released it I could now pull the trigger and it would fire. This happened multiple times in one mag so I decided to quit until I could determine the source and get it repaired.

I have been pondering getting a trigger job done and replacing the plastic trigger and getting one of those cool looking skeletonized hammers too. I guess this will be my motivation. Like I said though, DP refused to do the work. What's up with that? Are Para's bad to work on? Help is appreciated, as always. Any suggested mods, parts, tips, will be greatly appreciated. This is mainly a carry gun. Thanks.

P.S. The gun was clean, and I was shooting 230gr fmj UMC. If that makes any difference.


I.C.

 

[stans]

Hmmmm... sounds like the disconnector is not resetting. This could be as simple as a build up of gum and gunk inside the gun preventing free movement of the disconnector. It could also be the sear spring not having enough tension to push up on the disconnector. Worst case, you need a new disconnector as this one may be damaged. If you need a new one, this would be an opportune time for that full trigger job. Make sure you have a really good gunsmith do your trigger job, way too many stories of ultra light triggers going full auto.

OH, I almost forgot, check the bottom of the slide, make sure the disconnector relief near the rear of the slide is not damaged. Sometimes the edges get peened and that could keep the disconnector depressed.

 

[1911Tuner]

Disconnect

Stans nailed it. You can run a quick test on the disconnect to determine what the problem is.

Get a can of WD40 and use the red straw to direct the spray around the top of the disconnect. Push it in and out a few times to loosen up any
build-up around it and inside the channel. If the problem goes away, the gun needs to be detail-stripped and scrubbed thoroughly. If it doesn't,
you've got other problems.

WD40 will penetrate and possibly kill your primers, so let the gun air-dry for at least 24 hours before loading it. The carrier is the penetrating agent, and it will evaporate completely in that time frame.

Luck!

Tuner

 

[insidious_calm]

Thanks guys.

Make sure you have a really good gunsmith do your trigger job, way too many stories of ultra light triggers going full auto.

Well, there are no gunsmiths close to me. That's why I called DP to see if they would do it, which they would not to my amazement. The closest smith is so far behind he said he couldn't give me a time frame. Others have had not so good things to say about him also. Which led me to buy videos and ask for help. I am going to attempt to 'do it myself' mainly out of necessity, but also because I like to know how to work on my own stuff. I don't need, or want, a 3lb. trigger. This is a carry gun and reliabilty is king.

With that in mind, any of you .45 gurus wanting to play professor will have a student. Thanks for the help.


I.C.

 

[stans]

For a carry gun I would say a 4.5 to 5 pound trigger is all you really need and it is not too hard for a novice 1911 smith to achieve this goal. If you have not already purchased and read Kuhnhausen's two books on the 1911, do so. I found them to be of great value to my efforts.