- First of all, I check to make sure that the safety can go on the frame with no interference. In other words, on a stripped frame, I put the safety on and make sure that it moves up and down without a problem. I have run on one incident where the frame clearence notch in the safety was too narrow to allow full movement.
- After that, I install the sear, disconnector and hammer, but I leave out the grip safety. In that way I can look inside the back of the pistol to see what's happening inside. The link posted by Stu above, should give you a good idea of how things should look inside, but don't expect to see those huge clearences shown in those pictures.
- You should now familiarize yourself with the thumb safety's operation. If you look in the shaft of the thumb safety, there are some areas of interest, shown in the picture above.
- If the safety refuses to go in its place, then the sear clearence area needs to be made deeper. File the sear clearence area towards the rear of the safety, not towards the sear engagement area, but at 90 degrees to it.
- Now move the safety to its full downwards position. Check that the hammer is free to move through its travel. If not, then the hammer clearing area needs to be filed down a little.
- With the safety in the frame, try to move the safety up. It probably won't go all the way. Now it's the time to start filing the sear engagement area. Go easy, one stroke too many and your safety is permanently damaged. So when you are sure that the safety can move all the way up in its slide notch, while at the same time fully blocking the sear from moving when you pull the trigger, it's time to stop. Make sure that the trigger doesn't release the hammer with the safety in the up position and you should be good to go.
Did I forget anything?
Put your gun back together and check it.
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