Failure to fire

piasashooter · Post by **piasashooter** » Sat Aug 06, 2011 5:21 pm

I checked on the sear spring and it was installed correctly, I really thought that might have been it, but the spring was in the way you described. I have a Clark hammer bushing and pin, removed the magazine disconnect, replaced with washer, and the factory hammer and sear have been reworked by a local smith, the trigger weight is just over 2 lbs. The trigger plunger spring is one that he tuned and installed when he did the trigger job. Also as you guessed I have a VQ trigger. I have Houge wrap around grips also.

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Sat Aug 06, 2011 6:40 pm

I still think that if the hammer and sear was not catching it would go into full auto. But it may not. If the local gunsmith worked on the hammer/sear I would return it to him. You mentioned that the sear was marked by the hammer. Take something with magnification and look at the hammer's shelf edge. It should be sharp, no rounding. A option would be to install a VQ Hammer and sear, but I hate just replacing parts with no reason. If you can take a picture of the hammer notch for us to look at.

I have the Clark MKII Bushing and pin in my MKIII. It does limit the sears engagement, less than the factory bushing. If you have your factory MKII bushing install it and see what happens.

These long distance diagnostics can be a bear. What looks normal to one may not to another.

Post by **Bullseye** » Sun Aug 07, 2011 5:21 pm

I'd also check to ensure that the washer is not impeding the sear face from seating on the hammer hook. If the diameter of the washer is too large then it can interfere.

R,
Bullseye

piasashooter · Post by **piasashooter** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 12:15 am

The washer that goes with the hammer is not interfering with the sear, and the hammer shelf look a slight bit rounded, but still pretty much a squared angle. I wrote a topic here a while back about my hammer pin hole on my frame being over sized from the pressure of the mainspring pushing up on the hammer. The top half of the hole is flared out from the pressure. Well, back when I first noticed this problem I contacted Ruger, but they wanted me to take pictures and send them to them, but I didn't have a camera then, and since the gun was working properly back then I sort of forgot about it. Anyway since my gun has been malfunctioning recently I remembered about this problem and wonder if it could be the cause of my misfire problem. I have some pictures for you guys to look at, and I will still send some to Ruger to, but wanted to know what you thought.

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 8:34 am

That does not look good. The frame would have to be very soft for that to happen. If could be causing misalignment problems, but I would expect full auto if the hammer was following the bolt.

At this point I would send it to Ruger and let them fix it. They generally have good turnaround time.

Remember if you send your gun in, put ALL factory parts back in. Otherwise they will and charge you for the missing parts.

ruger22 · Post by **ruger22** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 10:32 am

blue68f100 wrote: Remember if you send your gun in, put ALL factory parts back in. Otherwise they will and charge you for the missing parts.

I understand they sometimes KEEP all the non-factory parts, even grips, and charge you for the replacements.

Post by **Bullseye** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 2:18 pm

Your frame is out of specifications with those hammer pin holes like that. It doesn't look like much but that is enough to put the geometry of the internal components out of proper alignment. Looks to me like your frame was improperly heat treated. That needs to go back in for warranty work.

R,
Bullseye

piasashooter · Post by **piasashooter** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 7:09 pm

I e mailed Ruger and they didn't really sound concerned it all with the hole in the frame, they just said miss fires can be caused by several things. Then they said they would suggest sending it in to be looked at. But if Ruger swaps out after market parts, they might just say the problem is that my hammer and sear have been reworked. I could put the hammer and sear from my Dad's gun in my gun, but, it might completely change the way the gun operates, possibly eliminating the miss fire problem. What should I do. Send it to them with my re worked hammer and sear, put my Dad's factory parts in?

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 7:25 pm

If you send them your reworked hammer and sear it will be lost and they may even charge you for replacements. Test with your dad's hammer and sear in your gun and see if it still malfunctions. But in any case there is something seriously wrong with your frame. Like Bullseye said missed the heat treating process to deform like that.

piasashooter · Post by **piasashooter** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 10:07 pm

I agree there is something wrong with the frame, what I am worried about is if thy get the gun, and it doesn't miss fire, will they replace the frame? I shot my gun today and had no miss fires, so it is not a guarantee it will miss fire for Ruger, with or with out my re worked parts. Like I said, they really acted like the hammer pin hole is not nessisarly the problem, they just said miss fires can be cuased by several thing, and they could look at it for me. If I wanted it to just be checked out, I could take it to a local gunsmith, so I still don't know what to do.

greener · Post by **greener** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 10:21 pm

Seems like the best bet is to replace any non-OEM parts with the originals and send it to Ruger with a letter telling them what the problem is and the pics you have here.

bearandoldman · Post by **bearandoldman** » Sat Aug 13, 2011 7:50 am

greener wrote:Seems like the best bet is to replace any non-OEM parts with the originals and send it to Ruger with a letter telling them what the problem is and the pics you have here.

I agree with that. you can not blame the manufacturer for replacing non OEM parts As Far as any manufacturer is concerned the safety and warrant of the gun or any other item is as it was manufactured with all original factory parts. They can not guarantee some one else's parts or modifications.
You will find this on any manufactured, not only guns,

Post by **Bullseye** » Sat Aug 13, 2011 2:35 pm

I would replace your aftermarket parts and thoroughly test the firearm. If you're not getting misfires then Ruger won't either. Then I'd replace OEM parts one at a time with the aftermarket ones until the offender is discovered. It can be one or a combination of them. With the frame holes off like that I'd suspect some tolerance issues with a VQ sear. Those sears are usually on the edge of operational with their current manufacturing specifications, those frame holes weeping like that may be just enough positional movement to cause the stoppages. If you cannot get the pistol to fail with factory parts installed neither will they.

R,
Bullseye

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Sat Aug 13, 2011 7:25 pm

If it doesn't cause FTF with all factory part, just say that you get several FTF in 100 rounds. I dought that they will shoot 100 rounds to test it, maybe 1-2 magazines at top. In any case I think they will replace the fame. How loose are the holes? Just tilt to one side and they fall out......

piasashooter · Post by **piasashooter** » Sun Aug 14, 2011 6:11 pm

I'm not sure what I am going to do yet, another thing is, if Ruger decides the problems are from normal use, and not manufacturing error, they charge for what they replace. Only the hole on the right side looks like that, the one on the left side really isn't that bad, for some reason the right side only looks like that, the pictures are all the right side. The last two range trips the gun worked great, so I am still unsure what i want to do. Unless I can know for sure they will replace the frame for free, there is really no reason to send it to them.