walther P22 tale of interest

[bigdavep]

I've put a thousand or so rounds thru the P22 and read the "P22 Bible" then looked at the gun to see if it wears where the document says it does.

It does. Most of the repairs were too much for me, tool-wise, but I knew I could polish and round the 'trigger bar ears' to cut down on the chunky wear in the slide, on the tiny part that ramps a bit. THat's because those sharp ears bang into the sloped part and chop pieces out of it. Emery board polishing to round off the ears, I was told, would cut down on that wear.

So I took it down. polished the ears on the trigger bar. Learned how it goes together. Reassembled and repeated several times to get the hang of it.

And the end result is, the trigger bar no longer consistently raises up to engage the hammer assembly from DA position. Sometimes the bar stays down, as if there was no magazine in the gun. IN single action with cocked hammer it is fully engaged all the time, no problems.

I can shake the gun, or turn it upside down, and it will 'hook up' and then I can fire it. But from DA position it just won't make consistent hookup when normally held.

Anyone else experienced this? I believe I can add some epoxy inside the hollow part of the trigger and raise the height of the engagement of that end of the return spring, which should add some lift and tension to it. But I hesitate to do something different before asking if anyone else has same experience.

Still love the gun, puzzled by this temporary difficulty, looking for advice.

thanks

 

[moooose102]

i wish i knew what you were talking about. but mine has been flawless through many thousands of rounds. it had a couple of jams when it was brand new, but after the first cleaning, there have been no issues.

 

[EAJ]

I’ve performed similar trigger bar work on my P22, but haven’t experienced the issue that you describe with the DA trigger. That said, 99% of my shooting is done in SA mode. You might try posting your question over at rimfirecentral.com.

 

[bigdavep]

yeah, the thing seems to come down to one possibility-- the trigger return spring, the one that both pushes the trigger forward after firing AND lifts that trigger bar UP to engage the hammer arm notch so you can pull the trigger from DA and the hammer will go back-- that trigger return spring suddenly seems weak, and the 'lifting' of that bar to engage the hammer arm notch just doesn't happen half the time. Pulling the trigger DA results in a resistance-free movement backwards that accomplishes nothing. The trigger return spring is supposed to lift that bar so it engages the hammer mechanism when it moves backwards... but if it isn't lifted, it freely moves under that notch instead of fitting into it.

I"ll ask at rimfire central.. Haven't joined there yet. Good time to do it. Really should be easy to fix, but I want others' experience to talk to me first.

 

[MT GUNNY]

Same thing Happened to Mine. I also Came to the Same Conclusion. i attempted to Re spring the Trigger Spring to No avail. I went out to Shot it afterwords, It acts like a 1911. Please let me Know what you come up with! I will prolly end up sending it in when I have some Extra Cash, or get rid of it and get the New PP380 Which is almost Identical.

 

[searcher451]

Were the problematic P22 mine, I'd send it back to S&W/Walther America in a heartbeat and have them fix it on their nickle. They will pay for the shipping in both directions.

Gunny: One significant difference between the P22 and the new Walther PK380, besides caliber accommodation, is the fact that the new gun has a steel slide while the P22's slide is made of zinc.

 

[evan price]

Hmm, 6000 rounds plus another 200 yesterday, and mine is still going strong, zinc slide and all.

 

[bigdavep]

Gunny,

I have found the motherlode of info on this, courtesy of a member at Rimfire Central, and he tells me when you take down the gun, you almost always overwind the trigger return spring just by handling it. Gotta take it down one more time, push the pin through the trigger, get the spring out, and really flex it outward to add to the compression resistance. The mental picture is, when your trigger / triggerbar is laying out on the counter, the trigger should point almost 180 degrees away from the triggerbar as a result of spring pressure. If the spring is too compressed, the trigger will get closer to the triggerbar, moving toward 90 degrees or worse, and you'll know you have to manually 'unwind' the spring.

I will try this. I may also get creative and pour some epoxy into the hollow back of the trigger while it's apart. Then the spring will have something to rest on that is further compressing it, adding a tiny bit to its strength to do its job of lifting that trigger bar.

I'll post on my repairs and their success or lack.