Gritty, Clunky SP01 Single Action Takeup - About to Give Up

[TheIceMan93]

I will start by saying that I adore my SP01. It was the first gun I ever bought and I've been tinkering with it ever since. I love it in every way except for one maddeningly frustrating area ... the bleep gritty, clunky single action takeup. I've tried every trick in the book to smooth it out. I've polished everything that you are supposed to polish to a mirror shine. I've switched out the sear, sear cage, and trigger bar in every configuration to see if I can get parts to match up better. I'm running lighter springs everywhere. I put in an Apex competition sear and hammer. I'm running moly grease on all the surfaces that rub. I even made my own sear cage shim to stop the loose sear cage from shifting back during the trigger pull (this mod btw is amazingly awesome for making your trigger break super crisp). I'm out of ideas and the single action take-up still more or less feels the same as when I got it. Gritty, clunky, and annoying.

I don't mind that the take-up is too long. What I hate is how I can feel three distinct sections of resistance, clunks, or stacks before I hit the wall and the trigger breaks. In single-action pull, it goes clunk, clunk, clunk ... stiff wall and crisp break with virtually no creep. I've tried everything I know of to get rid of the clunks but nothing is working. It's maddening because the trigger breaks so perfectly but the clunky takeup makes the trigger feel like cheap ass. Is this just how CZ's feel no matter what you do? I know I can send it to CZ Custom or CGW but I've done the same trigger polishing that they will do so I don't understand how they could fix it without just pulling out the firing pin block and putting in a custom-fit disconnector.

I know the stages I'm feeling correspond to a distinct action in the single-action trigger pull. The first "clunk" is the back of the trigger bar hitting the bottom of the two sloped ramps on the underside of the sear cage. The second clunk is the trigger bar riding down the two sloped ramps. The last clunk is the trigger bar hitting the firing pin block lifter arm and pushing the FPB up. I bought a CGW lightened FPB plunger spring that was supposed to make the FPB way less noticeable but I don't think it made any difference at all. I can still feel it very distinctly.

Is it even possible to make a firing pin block equipped 75 feel smooth or is my only option to pull that sucker out and dramatically shorten the take up so I don't notice the stacking so much? I just hear about how "perfect" people get the 75 triggers to feel and I've tried all the suggestions (minus pulling the firing pin block). I know that pulling it is probably the best option for feel but doing so will mean that I can't use the gun in IDPA since I'm disabling a factory safety feature. Ugh.

[Tok36]

   Are you noticing this stuff while pulling the Trigger at speed? Have you experienced the same thing with other CZ 75 variants? How many rounds do you have through your SP-01?

  I have factory stock CZ 75 variants that do not fit your description of the Single Action pre travel. I can feel the point at which the Trigger Bar picks up the Firing Pin Block Lifter Arm but that is about it. Maybe you have an especially rough one.

Edit: An option that may be worth exploring. Check that the Trigger Bar Spring grooves on the underside of the Trigger Bar legs do not have machining marks. I have polished these grooves and the corresponding humps of the spring legs in a few cases and seen some improvement.


   

[Earl Keese]

This is what I would do: Remove the slide, main spring and hammer. Work the trigger through it's full range of motion. Any grit? Try using a punch to move the fpb through it's full travel, any grit there? Did you polish the fpb and the fpb channel? I've done a dozen or so 75's, some with oem hammers and sears and none of them even remotely match your description. Are you using a short reset fpb lifter?

[TheIceMan93]

   Are you noticing this stuff while pulling the Trigger at speed? Have you experienced the same thing with other CZ 75 variants? How many rounds do you have through your SP-01?

  I have factory stock CZ 75 variants that do not fit your description of the Single Action pre travel. I can feel the point at which the Trigger Bar picks up the Firing Pin Block Lifter Arm but that is about it. Maybe you have an especially rough one.

Edit: An option that may be worth exploring. Check that the Trigger Bar Spring grooves on the underside of the Trigger Bar legs do not have machining marks. I have polished these grooves and the corresponding humps of the spring legs in a few cases and seen some improvement.

I don't notice it as much when pulling the trigger at speed and I notice it a lot more during dry fire. This is the only CZ I have so nothing to compare to. I'd say it has about 1000 rounds through the current setup. It's so strange to me that other people don't feel what I'm feeling in the single-action takeup. It makes me worried that something isn't right with my trigger but everything is functioning 100%.

I have polished the trigger bar spring grooves already. That doesn't seem to be the source of my problems.

Update: So it's not the trigger bar hitting the sloped section of the underside of the sear cage. This diagram shows that the trigger bar is already in contact when the SA pull starts. I guess I can isolate the problem to the trigger bar engaging with the sear and FPB lifter. The disconnector may be grinding somewhere as well. I'm going to try a SAO trigger I have lying around without the disconnector to see if that is contributing.

https://i.imgur.com/dcn7t8M.gif

[TheIceMan93]

This is what I would do: Remove the slide, main spring and hammer. Work the trigger through it's full range of motion. Any grit? Try using a punch to move the fpb through it's full travel, any grit there? Did you polish the fpb and the fpb channel? I've done a dozen or so 75's, some with oem hammers and sears and none of them even remotely match your description. Are you using a short reset fpb lifter?

Thanks, I will pull the hammer and disconnector and see If I can locate the source of resistance. The FPB feels perfectly smooth when I depress it with a punch but only the top has been polished where it contacts the lifter. I'll try polishing the sides of the FPB barrel and the hole it rides in.

I'm using the stock FPB lifter arm. I assume you are referring to the CGW short reset kit? I was going to try that next but I'm a little nervous since that kit requires an extended firing pin which Apex explicitly stated not to use with their hammer and sear. But their concern seems to be with FPB-less guns so maybe I'm ok? I'm sorta lost at this point.

[Lock-n-load]

Put cajungunwoks short reset kit and competition hammer ...that smoothed it out after all the polishing didn’t.. extra polishing on the trigger bar outside and spring groves ..and the frame where the trigger bar rubs on the sides .finally smoothed everything out..and lotsa dry fire and 2000 + rounds through it🧐