To be clear: there are TWO levers in your frame, the one you can see with the slide removed, and another, smaller one, below and forward of it. The lower one pivots around the sear pin, the upper around the hammer pin.
A spacer takes the place of both frame levers. Some people have been known to simply cut the nose of the upper lever with pliers, remove the plunger and spring from the slide and be done with it.
Others (like me) have found that the gun can be 'fettled' to have a pretty good trigger pull, that's plenty light enough (around 3.5-4 pounds, possibly a bit lower still, if you like it) with these parts in place, plus a 23 or 21 pound mainspring (I believe yours had a #21 from the factory, but it might have been changed by the previous owner). So removing the firing pin safety parts might seem like a good idea, in the "if it works without them why bother" sense, but legal considerations aside, I've simply not found a reason to do so -- even for my P18.9 Para (i.e. the 9mm brother of your P14.45) that I only use for competition. Some other competitors tell me I should disable the grip safety (no idea why); they get positively wide-eyed when I tell them that I won't AND that it has a working FP safety...
I've also found that it's actually EASIER for me to take apart a 1911 slide that has the plunger and spring. OK it's not faster, but I like that the plunger can hold the firing pin forward, as I leisurely remove (or re-insert) the firing pin stop. YMMV.
Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.
M. Setter
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