Replacement mainspring housing with magwell

[slinkwc2k]

I saw someone had a similar post, but I didn't want to hijack their thread, so I started this one.

What I did was remove the mainspring housing from my Charles Daly government 1911. I disassembled the part, and put the mainspring, cap, pin and all the necessaries back into a new Ed Brown checkered MSH with removeable magwell. When I reassembled the gun, I noticed that now the hammer falls without releasing the grip safety. I also noticed less "play" in the grip safety; used to have to depress it a good bit to disengage but now it barely moves. Anyone have any suggestions as to what the problem could be or what I can do to fix it?

[David Rose]

There are a couple of "feet" on the top rear of the mainspring housing. The inside edge of these feet engage lower rear "feet" on the grip safety. In other words, the feet on the ms housing limit the outward travel of the grip safety.

If the safety's travel is not smooth and free, it may be either end of either object blocking the other slightly.

Most of the time, I trim the offending points on the grip safety. The feet on the housing are usually pretty angled. If they need much relief, you could end up with no engagement for the safety.

David

[John]

David is correct, as usually, that those two "feet" are the culprit. I would file the ones on the top of the MSH though. Go slow until your grip safety engages properly. A trick:

Disassemble the pistol and reassemble it without the sear, disconnector, hammer and thumb safety. Put the sear spring in its normal position and insert the thumb safety from the right side of the frame, to hold your grip safety in place. Then insert the MSH as you normally do. In that way, you have the thumb safety opening on the left of the frame to see how the grip safety interacts with the trigger bow. Do it with the original MSH first, then with the new one. In that way, you will know what you need to watch in order to trim the MSH protrusions to the right thickness to allow your grip safety to work properly.

Remark: You may need to file the protrusions of both the MSH and the grip to achieve a correct fit.

Remark 2: Go easy with the file, it is easy to remove metal, but very difficult (or expensive) to put metal back on.

[slinkwc2k]

Thanks guys, I'll try that out tonight.

[wichaka]

The two tabs at the top of the MSH housing are holding the grip safety in a bit, so it allows the trigger free movement.

I too would trim the tabs first on the MSH. Then maybe take a bit off the feet on the grip safety, if they are thick enough. I've seen a few that are pretty thin, so use your best judgement there.

[slinkwc2k]

I have to give kudos to this site and to everyone who replied with their input. I ran some 200 grit sandpaper over the top of the new MSH, after I compared it with the stock. The ed brown was just a millimeter or 2 taller, so after sanding it down, the grip safety works like its old self. Actually had a gunsmith replace the front sight today with an EGW red fiber optic. If I get some time, I'll post some pictures in the "Other Manufacturers" section. Thanks again to everyone for their good advice.