Trigger bar spring help

[Rangemeister]

OK, I recently bought an older MK9. Paid too much, but that is another story. Now, the trigger bar spring will not stay put when shooting the gun. At first I thought the problem was the new wood grips I put on the gun, but neither grip, oem or the wood ones, will keep the spring in place. I ordered a new spring from Kahr and now waiting. My question is, this gun has been shot very little. An undercover cop carried it as a backup for a lot of years (6 or 7) only periodically shooting the gun, then it was stored a lot of years (7)without being fired at all. Could the spring be stretched out? Is that possible? Am I inserting the spring improperly? The guy I bought it from is a trusted source and has offered to help out. Any suggestions would be helpful to include a PIC of what the spring should look like? I've researched here and could find only a suggestion to send a pic to a requester. Thanks.:Amflag2:

[Bawanna]

I have an older MK9 here now, I'll go take the grips off and shoot a picture of it and get back to ya.

Standby.

[Rangemeister]

Thanks bawanna, I would really appreciate it!

[Bawanna]

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n538/hopke5/DSCN3959_zps86d7c895.jpg (http://s1138.photobucket.com/user/hopke5/media/DSCN3959_zps86d7c895.jpg.html)

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n538/hopke5/DSCN3960_zps34b1525b.jpg (http://s1138.photobucket.com/user/hopke5/media/DSCN3960_zps34b1525b.jpg.html)

Did you take the spring out for some reason or did it fall out on it's own?

[gb6491]

Bawanna's excellent photos show the current style spring properly installed.
Early K9's had a different style spring and I'm not sure if it was ever used in the MK series, but FWIW, here's hangdog's photo of that style spring and trigger bar:
http://i41.tinypic.com/b6sttv.jpg
Regards,
Greg

[Bawanna]

You mean this MK isn't as early as I thought? Wonder if this is why my grip research isn't working for beans.

I'm gonna go pull a handle off my K40 which is early too and see what it looks like. Maybe we're onto something here.

[Rangemeister]

Great pics! The spring fell out when I changed the OEM grips to the mew wooden ones I bought. It has not been right since. The gun looks like a new one internally. In fact, there appeared to be old storage grease in some places. I did not get the spring into the position your pic shows. Range time, the gun would fire two times or so, before the spring would act up. I brought the gun home and tried several configurations and dry firing made the spring jump out. I looked at your pics and got mine looking exactly the same. At first, the spring did not want to cooperate, but now looks exactly the same. I dried it 25 times or so with the oem grip and then took the grip off, the spring was still in the exact position as I inserted based on your pic. I then put the wood grips on and dry fired another 25 or so and all seems well! Your pic made a lot of difference! I made the foolish mistake of making spring changes at the range without a spotter and almost lost the spring once. I had a large magnet in the truck that saved the day. IS it possible for the spring to weaken you think? I will call Kahr Tuesday. Thanks for your rapid reply to this issue. This MK9 is a great carry gun and I hope this minor problem has been resolved! Thanks ever so much, enjoy this Holiday!

[Rangemeister]

GB, my previous K9 looked as Hang's depicts. The MK is a little different. You guys are awesome! Thanks

[Bawanna]

I'll bow to Gregs superior intelligence but I doubt that spring would ever weaken to the point of not functioning.

All it does is apply upward pressure to the trigger bar.

That being said all springs given enough time will weaken and since they are relatively cheap it can't be a bad thing to change anytime you think there's an issue.

Beretta 92's of course have a similar spring and they are notorious for getting knocked out while cleaning, especially officers in a solvent tank with a brush.

I had an officer knock his out, he carried the gun for a couple weeks before he had a range day, could have been months but the timing was lucky.
He'd knocked the spring out. He got one shot just because the bar happened to be in the right position. Then of course it dropped and he had a paper weight. I kept several on hand but found his in the solvent tank.

Instructor at Beretta school had a class and the last guy cleaning his gun found 19 of them in the bottom of the tank. Officers from all over the state had come to the class and were enroute home. He was there till nearly midnight contacting them to let them know they had non functioning paperweights until they replaced that silly spring.

[yqtszhj]

Instructor at Beretta school had a class and the last guy cleaning his gun found 19 of them in the bottom of the tank. Officers from all over the state had come to the class and were enroute home. He was there till nearly midnight contacting them to let them know they had non functioning paperweights until they replaced that silly spring.

Some people just don't need to be working on stuff.... No offense intended but no full dry function check after reassembly????

I used to work with a guy and he borrowed his dads 1970 something Capri. His dad had one car to drive and one for parts. My co worker said every time he turned the car he got this weird shimmy in the front end. Driving straight was OK.

When he got back to his dads house he found that there was only one lug nut on each wheel, and it was only finger tight. :eek:

Oh by the way. Very good pictures.

[Bawanna]

Some people just don't need to be working on stuff.... No offense intended but no full dry function check after reassembly????

I used to work with a guy and he borrowed his dads 1970 something Capri. His dad had one car to drive and one for parts. My co worker said every time he turned the car he got this weird shimmy in the front end. Driving straight was OK.

When he got back to his dads house he found that there was only one lug nut on each wheel, and it was only finger tight. :eek:

Oh by the way. Very good pictures.

Precisely what I try to instill in my guys. Function check the heck out of them.
That Beretta class was a shooting class rather than a armorer class and I don't know why they all cleaned their guns prior to leaving or why they took the grips off.
You can function check them and nearly always get one good test before the bar drops and your out of commission.

Once your aware of it it's easy and simple just to make sure it's in place.

Thankfully it's safe as long as you leave the grips on.

[Rangemeister]

Hello Bawanna,
I wan't to show you something and some of you MK users take notice. I just got the MK trigger bar spring and there is NOTICEABLE difference between the old and new. I have posted pics, but am curious how this happened? My MK is dated 98, so long term use? or abuse by previous owner? Who knows, but I got the thing looking like Bawanna's and am confident the thing will perform now! :amflag:

Can't seem to post, so will start a new post.

[Bawanna]

Apparently the 30 post requirement is tripping you up. I received your email but don't see the mentioned picture there either, that goes to my phone which I'm not too adept at working so it might be a problem on my end, user error.

I'll look again when I get home.

[wyntrout]

I thought maybe this was going to be one of those posts about the different grips being too tight and interfering with the trigger bar and spring.:confused:

Wynn:)

[Rangemeister]

Wyn, I thought at first that the NEW wood grips were affecting the proper function of the trigger bar spring, but after I resinstalled the factory grips, the gun still malfunctioned. I ordered the new spring and it came in yesterday. The older spring NEVER looked exactly like Bawanna's, the new one DOES! :D I will try it out for sure today, although the gun dryfired using the old spring after installing per Bawanna's pic and it did fine also. Now the new one is installed so can't wait to see. Was there a spring redesign in the last 15 years???? :Amflag2:

[Bawanna]

I'm not sure of the time line but the very early models had a totally different spring set up. Greg had some good pictures of them around here someplace.

It was more round and kind of pinned on both ends rather than laying in the little groove in the frame.

Those springs are non existent and require the gun going in for an upgrade.

[Rangemeister]

Posting trigger bar spring...what the ??? New one on top.

[Bawanna]

I'd say at one time those springs were the same. You can see all the same bend points on the upper end, the radius is a bit different on the bottom but it could be just the spring taking a set.

Maybe somebody in an earlier life tweaked it a bit since it was in wrong when you started.

Pretty bent out of shape. New one should make everything right.

[yqtszhj]

I agree with the Colonel. the new one should be more "springy"