For some time now it has been evident that assembling the barrel to the slide housing is not very consistent. Measuring the gap between the slide and the slide housing when in battery varied between .011" and .018" in the four Kadets that I have owned. See picture of the measurement on one of them.
With this condition the roll pin that secures the barrel in the slide housing is battered with every round. This leads to fractured roll pins in high round count units. Also, roll pins, being somewhat springy, could be adding to the light strike problem by absorbing some of the firing pin impact.
Three of the four units that I have owned have been modified to eliminate the gap. (I sold one before I knew of the problem.) Two of the three were modified with less precision than I am comfortable with but the results were satisfactory. Before doing the mod on my last Kadet, a full pistol, I put forth a bit of effort in developing a fixture that would guarantee positional repeatability to within .0005" (half a thousandth) The reason for this need for repeatability is that the barrel, in the fixture, must be positioned in the mill using the factory bored hole as a reference. Once this is done the gibs are locked to prevent table movement. The barrel can now be removed so the existing hole can be plugged and readied for re-drilling. When it is returned to the fixture I KNOW it is in the EXACT location as before. Now the mill bed can be shifted the necessary amount and the new hole drilled. The final step is to machine and fit a solid retaining pin to replace the roll pin.
The pictures show the fixture, the fixture with the barrel clamped in position and the setup in the mill.
Any questions?
Joe
