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View Full Version : PM9 slide stop lever won't engage, then slide stuck to the rear without barrel/spring



MAC702
12-01-2018, 04:17 PM
I can't be the first person to do this, but I've been searching the Internet for an hour and all the other threads I can find are stuck slides with barrels and recoil springs in them and the slide stuck somewhere else.

I'm an armorer on 1911s, Glocks, XDs, ARs, AKs, and M14s, so I figured if I watched closely I couldn't break it!

I've been watching videos and reading countless threads on the popular issue of the slide stop not engaging, but mine seems to have a perfect spring, screw, washer, and snugness. I even bought brand new parts from Kahr and have them here, and everything looks perfect. But even manually, I can not get the slide stop lever to go up into position to lock the slide back. So I decided to test how far back the slide can go with and without the recoil spring assembly. The pistol's history from previous owner is that it was once assembled backward and they had to get a new spring assembly, after all kinds of other mucking around with it.

So I take the recoil spring assembly and barrel out of the slide, and otherwise assemble as normal with the slide stop in place and I make a mark on the slide to show me how far back it needs to go for the slide stop to rise into position like it should, and it does. I then take out the slide stop lever to disassemble it again, only now it won't disassemble. It hangs up going forward and has springiness to it, like it is catching on the striker, but no amount of trigger-pulling seems to have any effect.

My next theory is that I will have to remove the firing pin while the slide is still attached to the frame. This is what I am currently researching, but I thought I'd post this for ideas while I do so.

MAC702
12-01-2018, 05:05 PM
...My next theory is that I will have to remove the firing pin while the slide is still attached to the frame...
So that worked. Now I can go back to test slide travel again. I'll leave thread here for any future searches.

MAC702
12-01-2018, 05:18 PM
And now that I have confirmed slide travel as the culprit, some Internet searches are saying a replacement spring being too long is a common issue, so I will do the 1/2 coil at a time thing until it works.

Bawanna
12-01-2018, 05:19 PM
Sounds like somehow the slide stop is under the spring rather than on top of it. Without the barrel and recoil spring it was right, with it not so much.

Only thing I can think of if we're talking about what I think we're talking about.

MAC702
12-01-2018, 05:42 PM
1/2 coil did the trick. Mostly. I might take off another 1/4 later after using it a while. Thanks, guys. I couldn't have done it without you!

topgun1953
12-01-2018, 08:30 PM
1/2 coil did the trick. Mostly. I might take off another 1/4 later after using it a while. Thanks, guys. I couldn't have done it without you!

Great you were able to figure it out. I'm thinking it might have been stuck originally because of this:

http://www.kahrtalk.com/showthread.php?7485-cant-get-slide-to-come-off Check post #23