m & s series trigger reset

8/8/2019 M & S Series Trigger Reset

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This is the order in which you should test and try from simplest to hardest:

1) Spring #20 is not able to pull trigger fully forward.

This is very uncommon as #20 doesnt need much force to start with. But it is possible, so letseliminate it.

Holding your UNLOADED gun, and pointing it in a safe direction; pull the trigger.

Cycle the slide SLOWLY while continuing to hold the trigger to the rear. Once the slide is back inbattery, release the trigger. Both triggers should be fully forward. Pulling the trigger again andhearing the same click will confirm that spring #20 returned your trigger forward enough to re-engage the flat on the bottom of the sear, resetting your trigger.

If the triggers do not return fully forward, this spring has insufficient force and should be replaced.If no replacement is available, try gently pulling on the spring, increasing the included angle, togive it more force.

2) The trigger bar rides too high in the sear when the sear attempts to pass the trigger bar as it ismoving forward while the slide is going into battery.

The trigger bar pushes a flat on the sear rearward, Gun= BANG. Slide cycles, Firing pin tanginitially goes forwards, pushing sear down. Then the tang travels backwards with the slide duringrecoil, pushing the sear down. At this point, with the slide all the way back during recoil, spring #12 pulls the sear back up into position. As the firing pin tang comes forward, it pushes the searforward to put the sear back onto the post. But the trigger is still to the rear, so the flat that thetrigger bar engages must travel over top of the trigger bar.

But ironically, spring # 19, which is nestled inside the actual trigger, is pushing the trigger bar up.

If spring #19 is strong enough, (i.e. too strong) it can push the trigger bar so high that the flat onthe sear is re-engaged by the trigger bar as the sear tries to move forward and over the triggerbar. This will stop the sear dead in its tracks, but the slide and firing pin keep on going. The firingpin gets in front of the sear, which is not pulled onto the post and voila! Your trigger is not reset.


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Holding the trigger in one hand, gently, I mean as gingerly as possible, pull the trigger bar downslightly. This spring is a real lightweight and it wont take much to get what youre after. You stillwant the spring to push the trigger bar all the way to the top of the trigger. You do not want adroopy trigger bar. Youre just trying to remove that little extra nth degree of force in the spring.The good news is that the trigger bar rides in a slot inside the frame. (The black grip) The gun willfunction if you bend the spring too much, it just wont feel solid anymore. Better to undershootthe desired result 10 times than to over shoot it once.

By the way, this spring is really easy to bend, go easy on it.

If you bend it too much, youre looking at ordering a trigger bar assembly. Forget knocking thatroll pin out of the trigger, and unless youre a gunsmith, really forget about getting it back in.

THIS SPRING IS VERY LIGHT AND WILL NOT REQUIRE MUCH FORCE TO BEND.

Now try some dry firing.

Those are the easy two things to diagnose and fix. If your gun has the click but functionsnormally, awesome. It shouldnt have the click, but if it works

If it doesnt work

Before we can go on, we need to do a test to determine which place to look.

Test: unloaded and pointed in a safe direction continually dry fire the pistol until it malfunctions.You should simulate the slide cycling as it would under recoil i.erack it hard to the rear and let itslam home. You will not damage your pistol doing this. Be sure that you hold the trigger to therear while dry firing.

Once your gun has malfunctioned (trigger didnt reset) pull the take down lever as if todisassemble the firearm. Its already de-cocked.

One of two things will happen:

A. the slide pops right off.


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In this scenario, the firing pin tang has passed the sear as the slide came into battery, whichmeans that in this particular instance, the firing pin spring was probably not the culprit. Move tothe fourth option.

B. IF the slide is captured, (i.e. will not slide forward off of the gun) the firing pin tang is behind thesear, but the firing pin spring has insufficient force to pull it onto the post. Check out option three.

3) The firing pin spring is incapable of pulling the sear onto the post

This is an easy fix. Add more preload to the firing pin spring.

But there are three possible ways to do this.

A. Replace the firing pin spring.

B. Add a weight, (# 45) if you can get one, or if you can scavenge other Steyrs in your collection.

C. If no parts are readily available, simply remove the spring and tug on it a little to stretch it out.This will add preload but is more of an art than a science. Here we go!

Remove the firing pin spring and guide rod from the firing pin. Pushing the fat end of the guiderod onto a hard surface, pull the spring down. Slide the weight off. The spring is still capturedslightly so have no fear. With a gentle twist and tug, it can be removed from the guide rod.Another gentle twist and tug and the spring pops right off.

Once its removed, just tug on both ends until it gets longer. But be careful.

I have a spring that is completely stretched beyond belief, and it works excellently at resettingthe trigger. But it feels really bad because the force of the firing pin spring is the main force youmust overcome as you pull the trigger. With it all stretched out, Im working harder to pull it, and itrubs against the inner walls of the firing pin atrociously, creating all kinds of friction and bunchingand just making the trigger feel bad. Which is to say worse than my other Steyrs trigger pull. Itstill feels better than other combat handgun triggers.

My understanding is that eight pound Steyr triggers had two weights, 5 pound Steyr triggers have

one weight. The spring force was never changed. This is why some Steyrs with one weight havesprings that cant handle the job of pulling the sear onto the post.

As an aside, many of the Steyrs that have been purchased recently sat in cases in a warehousefor years cocked. It is entirely possible that the springs have taken a set during that time whichis causing the issue. Also, if youre going to be storing your Steyr for any length of time, its agood idea to de-cock it (pull trigger) before storing it, so that your spring doesnt take a set.


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So you dont want to go bonsai and just start stretching this thing all out, because it will eventuallyall be crammed back onto the guide rod and have to ride and slide against the inside of the firingpin as it is compressed during trigger pull. I would try to get scientific.

Measure your springs static length, the length while it is uncompressed and off of the guide rod.Tug on it until its static length is 1/8

thof an inch longer. Re-assemble gun and test as before.

Continue adding preload and dry firing until you have successfully reached 200 consecutive,malfunction-free dry fires before trying live ammo.

If youve stretched it beyond of an inch, and you still have trouble, check out the next possibilitybefore you get distraught. It shouldnt take much tugging to achieve a satisfactory result, soagain, dont go bonsai.

4) The sear is held down by friction and as the firing pin comes forward, the tang passes it. Since

the tang is in front of the sear, the trigger is not reset.

This is ultimately what proved to be the problem with both of my pistols.

We know that the firing pin is released and allowed to travel forward when the sear falls off of thepost and the tang travels over the sear. It is therefore necessary that the sear go down again asthe tang comes flying past it during recoil. Then spring 12 works its magic and holds the sear upso that the sear can be pushed forward and onto the post again. BUT it is possible that thereis friction, courtesy of a burr causing a groove in the face of the post that prevents the sear fromclimbing back up the face of the post as the tang comes flying forward. If the sear is down whenthe firing pin comes forward, the firing pin tang will merely bypass the triangle on the sear. If youhappen to have light primer ammo, slide inertia can be enough to detonate said light primer,

causing an involuntary double tap. It could potentially go full auto and empty a magazine. Aplunger safety is of no value, because with the trigger pulled to the rear, the plunger safety isdefeated as the gun comes into battery anyway. I have known a Glock (with a plunger safety) tounload a magazine.

Disassemble your sear mechanism following the previous tutorial. You will see where your partsare rubbing together because the black painted parts have started to lose their paint where theyrub. This is in no way indicative of a problem. But it is indicative of where parts rub each otherduring normal operation. The key area to focus on for repairing a reset issue, that hasntresponded to the other, simpler fixes, is the portion of the mechanism where the front of the searengages the post. A burr or even a kind of like sharp edge on the front of the sear can scratch agroove onto the face of the post. This groove now captures the burr and holds the sear down.

This would explain why your Steyr started out life great and 200 or 600 or 1500 rounds in, youdevelop a problem.

Step one is to polish the groove out of the face of the post. Use 1000 grit sandpaper which issitting on something flat. I mean, really flat. Precision ground granite surface plate would beideal but a common mirror works just as well. Use light back and forth motions until any visiblemarking/scratching is gone. Dont worry about taking off too much. It would take you a long timewith 1000 grit. Just polish till its uniformly shiny with no imperfections.


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Next, polish the top of the post, where the sear rests. Use a motion that simulates the arc of thepiece. You dont want to alter its profile, just make it shiny and smooth.

Next, make a couple of light passes right on the edge that you just created. You just want tosoften the edge slightly. It will help the sear get back on the post as well as improving the feelwhen the sear falls off of it.

For the sear, relatively aggressively knock off the corners as they are a very likely spot for a burr.Then, hanging the sear off the edge of the mirror, polish the bottom of the front of the sear, whereit engages and rests on the post. Be sure to keep this flat. Holding the sear vertically, gentlypolish the very front of the sear. You will notice it has a flat and sharp bottom edge and a littlemore profile in the form of a slight radius on top. This helps it to climb the face of the post after ithas been pushed down. Try not to alter this profile. Just make it nice and smooth. In the pic, thesandpaper is folded over the edge of the mirror and I am pulling up on the part. This smoothes

the edge which falls off of the post. In the second pic, the corner I refer to knocking off (relatively)aggressively is the corner that is visible in the pic.


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This solution ultimately fixed my problems. Ive gone thousands of rounds since without a hiccup,without ordering a part, and without sending my gun back.

However, there is also the potential that a burr is getting into the drop safety. Look at your dropsafety. Do you see paint removed or do you see a line/scratch gouged into it. Keep in mind thatthe drop safety moves backwards and forwards with the sear anytime the sear moves backwardsor forwards. But the drop safety does not move up and down with the sear as it is contained by aroll pin (#9) and pin #14. So, even if something has totally gouged your drop safety, it probablyisnt inhibiting the ability of the sear to move up or down. You can, if you wish, polish the side ofthe drop safety that rubs the sear, and polish the mating surface of the sear where it rubs thedrop safety. You will have to use a small screw driver or other device to really get into the cut out

for the trigger bar in the sear.

But be careful. Spring #12 only pulls on one side of the sear. If you remove a lot of material,you will start noticing that the sear is now becoming more diagonal in the sub-frame. This turnsinto diminishing returns. For every bit of material you remove, the sear gets more diagonal andmore prone to seizing. It is very likely that it is this diagonal condition which caused the groove inthe left side of the face of the post. Which, incidentally is why I encourage relatively aggressivelyknocking off that corner of the sear.

Hopefully one of these solutions will solve your reset issue. Undoubtedly, others will tackle theirown repair and hopefully they will post their problems and solutions. Thats why steyrclub is sogreat.

Please go on to the trigger tune up tutorial that will show you how to get a smooth, consistent,light pull with a crisp reliable and repeatable break.

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m & s series trigger reset

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