Smith and Wesson J-Frame FTF

[jasons]

I recently bought a used S&W 642 at a great price from a local dealer. I took it to the range and noticed that it would fail to fire about 50% of the time. There were no primer strikes at all and the trigger pull was noticeably lighter with the FTFs.

I took it apart and watched the guts as I dry fired. I observed that the trigger was not catching the sear reliably, so about half the time it would just slip right off and not cock the hammer. Furthermore, the sear seemed to pushed out to the right. Upon closer inspection it looked like the sear spring was in wrong and was pushing the sear out and to the right rather than straight forward.

I removed the sear and sear spring, cleaned everything, and reassembled with the spring properly seated. So far I have not had a single FTF, but I have a replacement sear spring on order just in case it walks itself out of place again.

Moral of the story: If you run across a S&W that suffers from the symptoms above, check the sear spring!



Side note: while I was at it I removed the internal lock using the tutorial here:

 

[Youradolt]

I would have said send it back to smith. but im pretty sure voided the warrenty removing that lock

 

[jasons]

I would have said send it back to smith. but im pretty sure voided the warrenty removing that lock

"I recently bought a used S&W 642 at a great price from a local dealer." Key word being used, so no warranty. If this had been a new (full price) gun I would have sent it back too.

As for the lock - I saved it and I could put it back in in about 20 minutes if I wanted to.

 

[T3andme]

"I recently bought a used S&W 642 at a great price from a local dealer." Key word being used, so no warranty. If this had been a new (full price) gun I would have sent it back too.

As for the lock - I saved it and I could put it back in in about 20 minutes if I wanted to.

Eh, FWIW I bought a used 1911, had a problem, sent it back with no questions asked by S&W. They fixed it for free and sent it back.

 

[seanc]

I wonder if the previous owner did some sort of wierd mod. And upon selling tried to put it back to stock but failed.
good info. thanks

 

[JimB]

i sent a gun i bought used back to S&W, no charge for the repairs, i'm not sure if removing the lock
would void the warranty, ask them.