# Good grief, Charlie Brown.



## jdeere9750 (Nov 28, 2008)

:buttkick: If I could kick myself in the rear end, I would certainly do it twice. In my haste to reassemble my UC II, I held the grip with the saftey depressed and threw the slide back on. Oops. I'm pretty sure that I have broken parts now. I knew better...

I'm not a gunsmith. I'm not even sure what the name of the part is that I have broken. I'm sure that experienced folks probably know exactly what I have done. Can you guys tell me what I have broken, how it is fixed, and if you think a rookie should tackle it. I'm not afraid to dive in and try things like this, so if you all think I can do it, I'll cetainly give it a shot. If the consensus is to not attempt, I'm good with that as well. Any help is appreciated.


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## VAMarine (Dec 25, 2008)

jdeere9750 said:


> :buttkick: If I could kick myself in the rear end, I would certainly do it twice. In my haste to reassemble my UC II, I held the grip with the saftey depressed and threw the slide back on. Oops. I'm pretty sure that I have broken parts now. I knew better...
> 
> I'm not a gunsmith. I'm not even sure what the name of the part is that I have broken. I'm sure that experienced folks probably know exactly what I have done. Can you guys tell me what I have broken, how it is fixed, and if you think a rookie should tackle it. I'm not afraid to dive in and try things like this, so if you all think I can do it, I'll cetainly give it a shot. If the consensus is to not attempt, I'm good with that as well. Any help is appreciated.


You probably broke your push rod, that's that little dongle that sticks up out of the frame when the grip safety is pressed in, it lifts the firing pin safety.

Making sure the gun is empty, place a pencil in the barrel eraser side toward the chamber and dry fire the gun making sure the grip safety is all the way in, if the pencil jumps or is launched, the firing pin safety is operational. *NOTE* IF YOU SLIGHTLY SHEARED THE PUSH ROD IT IS STILL POSSIBLE THAT IT MAY WORK BUT MAY NOT WORK UNLESS THE GRIP SAFETY IS PUSHED ALL THE WAY IN. *So you need to do the pencil test with varying levels of pressure to see if it will still work

If you take the gun back apart, and press in the grip safety, you should be able to see the push rod rising and falling.

If the above doesn;'t work
You need to call Kimber and get a replacement part, without seeing the gun or not knowing exactly what you broke, it's hard to tell.

Your best bet is to just send the gun back in for repairs.

Here's a pic of the push rod in the up (Grip safety pressed in-deactivated) position











Here's the push rod in the down (grip safety active) position










This is why I don't like the Swartz style firing pin safety.


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## Gunners_Mate (Feb 17, 2010)

just wondering, but why do you even think you have broken parts? did you feel anything as you put the slide on, or hear anything, or did a small piece of metal fall out, did you perform a function test and find something was amiss, or simply you know you don't hold the safety down while putting the slide on and are now fearing the worst? 

my experience with 1911 is nil except what I've learned from the internet and VAMarine, so plus one for his amazing response, a visual inspection should tell you whether or not that push rod is sheared or broken though. 

if it is broken I am confident with all the info on 1911's on the web you would be able to find a step by step armorer's guide of how to disassemble your weapon to bare frame, so all you need do is buy new part, follow instructions, and when you get to the removal of that part simply replace it with new one, and continue with the directions, or work your way backwards from there. parts replacement should almost never be something someone needs to shy away from unless it requires tooling or special tools, and even then it may be in your interests.


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## jdeere9750 (Nov 28, 2008)

First of all, sorry to be so slow to reply. Kinda busy this time of year.



VAMarine said:


> You probably broke your push rod, that's that little dongle that sticks up out of the frame when the grip safety is pressed in, it lifts the firing pin safety.
> 
> ...
> 
> This is why I don't like the Swartz style firing pin safety.


That's it. I knew that you'd pick it out without me having to even describe it. I knew what was broke, but I didn't know how to describe it.

I assume the push rod is completely broken, because it flops in and out as I invert the gun upside down and back right side up (without the safety pressed). It still rises and falls as I press the grip safety, and the gun still fires (it shot that pencil pretty far ) I haven't shot live rounds through it - I want it fixed before I do.

So, now that I know what's broken, what's my best options for fixing it? Where does a person get a new push rod? I Googled a detailed disassembly of a Kimber Ultra, and I couldn't find anything that pertained to the Ultra style gun. Anybody have a "how to" on this?

I'm starting to not like the Swartz style firing pin safety, either! :mrgreen:



Gunners_Mate said:


> just wondering, but why do you even think you have broken parts? did you feel anything as you put the slide on, or hear anything, or did a small piece of metal fall out, did you perform a function test and find something was amiss, or simply you know you don't hold the safety down while putting the slide on and are now fearing the worst?


Yes, I knew not to hold the safety down but I failed to do it this time. And, yes, you will "feel something" when you put the slide back on. If you look at the pictures that VA posted, you will notice that the push rod sticks up out of the frame when pressed, or activated. The slide will hit it when you try to put it back on. I suppose it may or may not break, depending on how much force you exert when putting the slide back on. Trust me - you will know it when it happens. I immediately realized it, and continued with some language my parents would not be proud of.


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## VAMarine (Dec 25, 2008)

jdeere9750 said:


> First of all, sorry to be so slow to reply. Kinda busy this time of year.
> 
> That's it. I knew that you'd pick it out without me having to even describe it. I knew what was broke, but I didn't know how to describe it.
> 
> ...


It's not broken, it will flop around like that as there's nothing to keep the push rod from moving with the frame/slide separated.









See that big loop at the bottom of the rod? That's all the slop available for that rod to wiggle if you invert the frame, gravity will do the rest. It won't flop around with the slide on as the firing pin block/spring is applying pressure on the top of the pushrod.


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## jdeere9750 (Nov 28, 2008)

VAMarine said:


> It's not broken, it will flop around like that as there's nothing to keep the push rod from moving with the frame/slide separated.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I think it is flopping around with the slide on. If I shake the gun back and forth, without the grip safety depressed, I can hear something bouncing around in there. If I shake the gun around with the safety depressed, I do not hear any noises at all.

Or am I going crazy?


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## VAMarine (Dec 25, 2008)

jdeere9750 said:


> I think it is flopping around with the slide on. If I shake the gun back and forth, without the grip safety depressed, I can hear something bouncing around in there. If I shake the gun around with the safety depressed, I do not hear any noises at all.
> 
> Or am I going crazy?


It's possible that if might still be bouncing with the slide on, I don't have a series II at my disposal any more to do my own testing, maybe some one here can try theirs out, but I don't think it's broken. Some play while being shaken can be expected. If you gut the internals and nothing looks broken, I'd wager that nothing is wrong with the gun.

With most 1911s, you will hear some minor "rattling" when shaking the gun, sometimes it's the grip safety, sometimes it's the recoil spring guide, sometimes it's the firing pin safety parts.

If it passes visual inspection and passes a function test it should be fine. You can always send it back to Kimber if you think it's busted.


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## jdeere9750 (Nov 28, 2008)

Thanks for your time VA. I'll try to figure out how to break down the gun to see if anything's broken in there. I'm just not used to things rattling around like that. I knew that I hit it with the slide, but I didn't think that I hit it that hard. Once I knew I hit it, I pulled the slide back off and begin inspecting to see what/how it happened. Prior to that happening, I hadn't inspected the push rod area at all to see if it had any type of play in it. When I noticed play in the push rod, I assumed the worst and that it was broken. I figured that they would've had that under spring tension to assist in pushing it back down when released.

I noticed that you said I could send it back to Kimber. I'm guessing I'd have to foot the bill for that one, since they don't have much of a warranty, right.


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## VAMarine (Dec 25, 2008)

jdeere9750 said:


> Thanks for your time VA. I'll try to figure out how to break down the gun to see if anything's broken in there. I'm just not used to things rattling around like that. I knew that I hit it with the slide, but I didn't think that I hit it that hard. Once I knew I hit it, I pulled the slide back off and begin inspecting to see what/how it happened. Prior to that happening, I hadn't inspected the push rod area at all to see if it had any type of play in it. When I noticed play in the push rod, I assumed the worst and that it was broken. I figured that they would've had that under spring tension to assist in pushing it back down when released.
> 
> I noticed that you said I could send it back to Kimber. I'm guessing I'd have to foot the bill for that one, since they don't have much of a warranty, right.


When you actually get it apart, it will make more sense, there is a lot of slop in the fitting of those parts making up the firing pin safety.

Regarding the warranty, it's listed as being a one year/limited warranty, but I've heard that they may go beyond that pending on certain circumstances. However I think you pay shipping, or partial shipping and that will not cost effective if there's nothing wrong with the gun.

If the push rod protrudes enough to lift the firing pin block it should be fine. Some of the 1911 specific forums should have detailed info on the break down of a Series II Kimber, it's not that much different from a regular 1911 but it's different enough that I'm not comfortable going into detail without a Series II in front of me.

If you're not comfortable doing it yourself and don't want to send it into Kimber, find a good gunshop to take it to and see if someone will look over it for you, it might run you $5-$10 for a technical inspection etc. but at least you'll know if the gun's broken or not.


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## jdeere9750 (Nov 28, 2008)

VAMarine said:


> When you actually get it apart, it will make more sense, there is a lot of slop in the fitting of those parts making up the firing pin safety.
> 
> Regarding the warranty, it's listed as being a one year/limited warranty, but I've heard that they may go beyond that pending on certain circumstances. However I think you pay shipping, or partial shipping and that will not cost effective if there's nothing wrong with the gun.
> 
> ...


Found this online. I'll try to break down the gun ASAP. Thanks.

http://digitalmalice.com/Series II Disassembly.pdf

http://digitalmalice.com/Kimber Series II Assembly.pdf


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## Lethaltxn (Mar 21, 2010)

Yikes!! Hope everything turns out ok.


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