My 1994 Semi-compact restoration/chop diary - Finished

[Gunnerdad80]

Before you installed the trigger assembly, sear cage and hammer assembly did the slide seem to fit the frame ok?

Are you seeing drag wear marks in the slide or fame rails?

[Underwhere]

Before you installed the trigger assembly, sear cage and hammer assembly did the slide seem to fit the frame ok?

Are you seeing drag wear marks in the slide or fame rails?

Yea the slide went on fine no issues. Even polished up the frame rails before bluing.

Pulling the trigger relieves the friction.
That's why I think it may be the trigger bar.

Rearward motion lowers the bar.

[Gunnerdad80]

Pulling the trigger relieves the friction.
That's why I think it may be the trigger bar.

Rearward motion lowers the bar.

Do you think it is at all possible that welding on the Beavertail could’ve caused any kind of warping at the rear of the frame?

Also is that the original trigger bar to that gun?

[Underwhere]

Pulling the trigger relieves the friction.
That's why I think it may be the trigger bar.

Rearward motion lowers the bar.

Do you think it is at all possible that welding on the Beavertail could’ve caused any kind of warping at the rear of the frame?

Also is that the original trigger bar to that gun?

I polished the rails after all the welding was complete and before bluing.

So I don't think that's it.

And yes the trigger bar is original.

I replaced all springs with new ones.
New disco, New hammer, New sear, New trigger.

Strange huh.

[Gunnerdad80]

No I meant warping to the frame underneath where the sear cage sits.

Or maybe even the trigger bar could be slightly bent. Do you have another one to compare it to?

[Underwhere]

I just went back down to the workshop to test something.

I held the trigger back and cycled the slide. No friction.

With the trigger reset and the bar up in the topmost position is where I get the the drag.

Strange. I am pretty sure if I try another trigger bar tomorrow that it'll work. I should do that.

But what could it be...
I polished the bar. If anything I should have taken away metal which I think would cause less friction and things would be looser not tighter.

I wonder if I overpolished the lobes at the top of the trigger bar. That would be a first. Maybe the bar isn't moving downwards enough during the slide cycling and that is causing it to jam up.

[Gunnerdad80]

Yeah definitely compare that trigger bar to another one. I wish I could see it in person, I like troubleshooting guns.

[Underwhere]

I pulled the trigger bar out of my matte stainless.
It's a little different but dimension-wise very similar.

The spring channels are cut deeper and cleaner than my semi-compact.

There is a bevel on the underside of the trigger bar that doesn't exist on my semi-compact.


As I expected the stainless trigger bar in my semi-compact worked without issue.

So I cut the bevel in my semi-compact bar, polished the surfaces with 400, 800 and then hit the bottom of the bar with 800.

I also tried cutting the spring channel a bit more. Just slightly.

And now it works fine. Weird.

I will disassemble and polish everything to finalize it.


But now I noticed a new problem.

When I use my trigger gauge to test SA, the hammer falls to half cock.

And if I pull the trigger ever so slightly in SA it falls. I highly doubt I would ever be able to replicate that on the range.

Pics: the one with less tool marks is from the stainless.

[Underwhere]

The new bevel.

[Underwhere]

OK so I attempted to fix the SA hammer dropping to half cock. I did. But I fuxored the sear by doing so.

It's been a while since the last time I made a mistake that needed a replacement part. Oh well.

The issue with the SA dropping as I understand it : the trigger bar moves back and rotates the sear out of the way, allowing the hammer to fall and hit the firing pin.

What was happening in my case is that the disconnector (normally doing nothing in SA) was actually still engaged with the trigger bar so when the sear releases the hammer, it falls forward but gets stopped by the disconnector hitting the trigger bar. I don't believe it's actually falling to half cock.

The solution (from reading other posts) is to take the edge off the wing on the disconnector.

So I did. And I fixed the issue.

But I took so much off that the disconnector slips off the trigger bar in DA way too early now. The hammer barely moves back.

So I need a new sear.

I'll give CGW a call tomorrow and see whether they recommend a new trigger bar too.

I've worked on maybe 20 or more CZ's all with CGW parts and have never had a gun be this far out of time in every direction.

But it's a learning experience. I'm good with it.

[Gunnerdad80]

Assuming the gun functioned properly before you did any work to it, I’m curious why there would be a problem after. What changed between unmodified to modified?

Also would the width of the disconnector hook channel on the trigger bar matter?

[Underwhere]

Assuming the gun functioned properly before you did any work to it, I’m curious why there would be a problem after. What changed between unmodified to modified?

Also would the width of the disconnector hook channel on the trigger bar matter?

It did seem to function fine before.

But I put in a new sear, New hammer, New disconnector.

That's enough to change everything.

However I have done these action modifications to many CZ's and have never had to fiddle this much.

I could have just called CGW on Monday but I didn't want to wait. I'm impatient.

[Gunnerdad80]

I could have just called CGW on Monday but I didn't want to wait. I'm impatient.

I’m the same way. 

[Underwhere]

Also would the width of the disconnector hook channel on the trigger bar matter?

Forgot to answer this. I checked the width. Plenty of clearance on either side. I just made sure both sides were free from burrs in case there was some contact.

[Underwhere]

I called CGW this morning.

It really puts you in your place when you talk to people who know so much more than you. They are just awesome.

1. Slide friction - The older CZ's have trigger bars like mine which may not be ramped like the newer ones. This causes the lip on the bottom of the disconnector to interfere with the trigger bar going  as far down as possible. So the solution is to cut that lip off...or in my case I cut a ramp to give it room. Either way will work.

2. SA hammer falling and the disconnector hitting the trigger bar. I removed too much material. I should go slower.

I have a new disconnector on the way.