is the sear spring plunger still needed ?

[spssw]

When using FSE hts is the (sear spring plunger) still needed ?

[BIG DUKE 60]

as a part that makes the gun work...YES

as a part you need to use to make it work right...yes

[spssw]

BIG DUKE 60-the two reasons I ask are the holes on the sear and trigger are big enough to fit the spring without the (sear spring plunger) and the tension is very tight to the point the whole mechanism is difficult to assemble inside the lower--according to a diagram I'm looking at the (sear spring plunger) goes into the sear.

[spssw]

Bigduke 60 you are 100% correct I put that part back in and it fuctions --getting that pin through the lower-trigger-sear is difficult !

[georgestrings]

"getting that pin through the lower-trigger-sear is difficult !"


What alot of 'smiths will do in such a situation is to fashion a "blind pin" that will hold the trigger/sear assy together, but is short enough to allow it to drop into the lower - then, you "drift" the blind pin out with the trigger pin, and you're home free...


- georgestrings

[spssw]

yea, I used a nail punch inserted from other side to hold sear/trigger somewhat in place--the blind pin is a good idea,never thought of that !

[shootist87122]

Use a short piece of copper rod (or similar) to pre-assemble the HTS and then punch it out with the trigger pin. Mine came off an old float rod from a swamp cooler or toliet (don't remember which). Even a shootist can be cheap.

[Arby]

I just cut nails of the right diameter into pieces of the correct length and seed all my cleaning kits, range bags/boxes, parts bins, etc. with them. That way one will always be near at hand when I need it.

Problem is, I still can't find one at the moment of need!

[cliffy109]

First of all, yes, you need the plunger. A friend of mine has an L1A1 that was going full auto and when we disassembled the rifle, we discovered that there was no plunger. There just was not quite enough tension to hold the hammer when the bolt slammed home. We installed a plunger and all is well.

Next, I use the trigger plunger from the left side of the lower to hold the trigger in place while I push in the pin from the right. Its a small enough diameter to get it in easily.

[gunplumber]

Originally posted by cliffy109
First of all, yes, you need the plunger. A friend of mine has an L1A1 that was going full auto and when we disassembled the rifle, we discovered that there was no plunger. There just was not quite enough tension to hold the hammer when the bolt slammed home. We installed a plunger and all is well..

Fascinating discovery. There IS NO PLUNGER on an L1A1, nor has there ever been.

Your problem was elsewhere and while you may have worked around it by making another part out of spec, its not a solution.

My suspicion is the lower lacks the pistol grip stud which also acts as a trigger plunger stop. CAI cut these off to fit their thumbhole stocks.

Or the trigger return plunger is an L2 - that is, shorter than an L1, or you have a weak or incorrect sear spring, or the nose of your sear lacks positive rake.

But a plunger is not the answer.

[BIG DUKE 60]

the blind pin works.

BUT.

i like the PAIN!! on the finger tip. after you do 4 or 5. it just feels good!!



PAIN IS ONLY WEAKNESS LEAVING THE BODY!!!

[cliffy109]

Originally posted by gunplumber


Fascinating discovery. There IS NO PLUNGER on an L1A1, nor has there ever been.

Your problem was elsewhere and while you may have worked around it by making another part out of spec, its not a solution.

My suspicion is the lower lacks the pistol grip stud which also acts as a trigger plunger stop. CAI cut these off to fit their thumbhole stocks.

Or the trigger return plunger is an L2 - that is, shorter than an L1, or you have a weak or incorrect sear spring, or the nose of your sear lacks positive rake.

But a plunger is not the answer.

Now ain't that a kick in the pants! Thanks.

The story on this was a bit funny. All of my FAL experience has been with the metric rifle. A Kiwi frined of mine found a nice example of an L1A1 that was sinilar to his old service rifle. During his first trip to the range, he discovered that it would fire for as long as he held the trigger down. Knowing what a serious problem this was, he brought it to my house.

I started by removing the top cover and cycling the action. Sure enough, as long as I held the trigger and slammed the bolt back, the hammer would drop.

The thing has an FSE fire control set so I decided to see what else could be going on. This was a mild trick as I had never taken a Commonwealth pattern rifle apart. I was please to see that the trigger and sear were held together by that fat roll pin. When I took that out, the sear shot across the garage, along with the spring.

I looked for 20 minutes for the sear plunger. I now know why I didn't find it. I came to the conclusion that this piece was missing and stole one off a spare metric lower I had. Bingo! It worked while dry firing. It also worked at the range for my friend.

Now, I have to decide if I tell him that our "fix" wasn't the right one of just let sleeping dogs lie.

[gunplumber]

if its an fse, the other possibility is the need to square the step going up to the shelf on the trigger. it needs to be 0-1 degrees. if its 2-3 degrees, it will sometimes let the sear slip.

Could also be the oval in the sear is undersize limiting how far the seaert can come forward.

[W.E.G.]

Ahh...grasshopper... observe this is the SLR-L1A3 variant. Issued only to Kiwi covert forces in the post-obsolescence apocolyptic era.

Most curious.

[tac-40]

This is really interesting. I just finished putting together an L1A1 lower and I found a sear spring plunger in my leftover parts box. I tried and tried but could not get that thing in the Inch HTS for anything. Decided to leave the damn thing out. Now I find out it didn't go there in the first place.

Damn, I learn something every day.