AR15 selector sticking

[Marcus in the Darkus]

Finally built my AR15 last night. Only problem was the selector detent tends to hang up - it looks like the notches on the selector are too deep, and the selector detent gets hung up in there. Annoying as hell as the selector will stick in the "safe" mode, and that's just unacceptable for a personal defense/SHTF rifle.

Is this a common problem? Any quick fix? The build instructions suggest that the selector spring may need to be shortened, but it seems to me the notches in the selector are simpy too deep.

 

[economist]

Just a guess: you could try removing some material from the point of the detent, making it less pointed.

 

[Jake L]

Remove the pistol grip and check to see if the spring is installed correctly and that the detent pin is installed with the point facing the safety selector.
Unless you got some sort of bargain basment parts the parts are all spected the same the selector notches will all be the same on all selectors. Only a few companies manufacture these parts and they are all spected the same.

 

[Marcus in the Darkus]

Spring is in correctly. The detent bores in the selector really look to be too deep to me. I'll try to post a pic.

 

[Dan Hurley]

I had a similar problem building one lower where the particular grip had a shorter hole for the detent pin spring than typical. This caused the detent pin to be forced upward with greater than normal force. I ground the spring length until it stuck out of the hole at a more typical length. I used trial-and-error grinding down the spring until I was happy with the force required to move the selector.

 

[Marcus in the Darkus]

Can someone give me an idea what length of uncompressed detent spring should protrude above the hole in the handle prior to assembly?

 

[TomH]

Hard to say without pics what your problem is. I doubt its a detent spring problem if you have standard springs.