Here are some more details I hope will prove helpful to those who have issues. I'm still hunting for the root cause of the issue.
Here's how it looks when all is nominally functional, with the original parts. Right. Trigger bar spring is in place, trigger bar is positioned correctly.
During my ownership of the gun, something caused the spring end to come off of the notch.
The failure was noticed both times shortly after the slide was reassembled.
1st time was when I first bought the gun and had the slide off for the first time, then took it to the range and it failed in less than 50 rounds.
I took off the grip, reattached the trigger bar spring at the trigger bar notch, and made a few more range trips.
In that time frame, I also purchased a 22LR conversion slide kit and used it during the trips as well, so there were a number of times the slides were removed and replaced.
The 2nd time the trigger bar spring fell off the notch, it was toward the end of a range session after switching from the 22LR kit back to the 40 S&W config.
The top blade of the trigger bar that protrudes upward from the frame interferes with the base of the slide when the slide is being removed and replaced. So there is an allowance for downward movement of the trigger bar to facilitate the installation and removal of the slide. The slide has a notch inbuilt that removes the interference and the spring tension on the trigger bar brings it back up to its normal operating level, where the trigger bar can engage the sear and hammer and whatever the heck else it does.
I suspect that this movement got the spring out of its nesting position on the notch each time and led to its detachment from the notch after being fired, both times the failures occurred.
This gun is about a year and a half old. I registered it with Sig Sauer for warranty purposes. I bought it brand new. I paid over $1,000 for it. (I expected quality..)
Here is a comparison picture of the P226's original trigger bar with the trigger bar from an M11A1 (Sig's P228-P229 hybrid something or another)
The M11A1 uses the same trigger bar as the one that originally came with the P226. The part numbers on the bars match. No problems with the M11 either.. yet.
I contacted Sig, as I mentioned before, and they sent a new trigger bar spring (identical to the old one) and a new trigger bar, in lieu of having me pay to send them the gun.
The trigger bar they sent has UPC Code 798681473953, "TRIGGER-BAR-1", "TRIGGER BAR, 226, 229, DA/SA, UNIVERSAL FRAME"
It is the part on the TOP with the number 595 stamped on it.
The area I was most focused on was the size of the notch that the trigger bar spring nested into. As you can see, the notch on the new trigger bar is much more generously sized.
I noticed that the old trigger bar looked like it had been ground down in the notch area after it had been stamped. Perhaps it was ground too much, causing the failures, or perhaps the notch simply isn't deep enough for the spring to maintain purchase through all modes of function including firing and disassembly. I don't know, I am not an armorer.
I set out to try to install the new trigger bar. I'm talking hours of serious frustration here. It required extensive disassembly of the gun to 'fit' or, rather, jam into place. The breech block, trigger, hammer, mainspring, sear, etc. All of it. And it did not seem right at all. It took a lot of cursing and fiddling and maneuvering to get it to finally get into place, even with the whole gun stripped apart.
When it finally came back together, this is how it looked.
I put the mainspring and its strut back on, and... the trigger won't engage properly. I could manually half-cock the gun and the trigger would start to engage the hammer, then when the trigger is fully pressed the trigger bar gets knocked out of place and disengages from the hammer completely.
I thought that I had screwed up installing the mainspring strut or other parts of the gun, so I chased my tail on that end for maybe four more hours before I simply gave up and put the gun away. I went to put the slide back on, and then discovered that the slide wouldn't even go on. The trigger bar's protruding blade interfered with the fit as before, but there wasn't enough movement in the trigger bar housing area to allow the blade to recess completely to let the back of the slide through.
It's clear to me now that the new trigger bar does not fit and definitely will not function at all without extensive fitting.
I wasn't expecting to do any gunsmithing on this pistol for something like a trigger bar. I certainly wasn't warned by customer service. But hey, they would have preferred for me to pay to ship the gun to them.
So I made the post in this thread two weeks ago about sending it back to Sig and asking them to make it right.
I haven't contacted Sig yet.
Last night I went after the gun again. I took it back apart, wrestled the new trigger bar out, and put the old trigger bar back in, albeit with the new trigger bar spring that they sent. Reassembled and dry-fire function checks perfect. Everything is nice and tight. The gun will work like a dream.
Until I go to the range, fire 1-50 rounds, or R&R the slide, or do anything that upsets the trigger bar spring enough to kick it off its perch on the trigger bar again.
Should I simply enlarge the notch on the original trigger bar to give the spring a more robust range of engagement?
