My experience with fitting the new Trigger Bar.

[mcb]

Old School I stole your picture and added a few labels for reference, hope that is OK?

So my Trigger Bar showed up in the mail yesterday (Saturday, with the usually snappy shipping from Pistol-Gear, Thanks!) and Saturday evening I set about to fit it into my XD-40 Tactical. The fitting went fairly well and by the end I am pretty sure I can strip and reassemble the lower half of my XD blind folded.

Here's how I did it and by no means should this be taken as 'the way' to do it, it's simple the way I did it. My XD-40 Tactical has a bit over 10,000rds through it and has a new version of the locking block, replaced sometime after 6000rds when the original started cracking. I also have one of the first generation (I believe there was a minor revision to the design made after the first batch) Springer Precision drop in sear kits in it.

First thing I did was strip the sear group and trigger group out of the frame. (detail frame strip instruction here) Two small pins in the back of the frame and the sear and its parts drop out. The disassembly lever and two more pins out and the locking block, trigger and trigger bar come out. No need to touch the grip safety or magazine release for this project.

With the sear group out and the trigger group out I put the new trigger bar on the trigger with the trigger bar spring and put it along with the locking block, slide release, and two pins back in. I left the disassembly lever out as it does not effect the trigger travel. I saw how it fitted and found that out of the package I had almost no travel of the trigger.

The first thing I fitted was the pre-travel stop labeled #1 in the above figure. I used a small mill file to file away the stop very slowly. It took about 4-5 removals-file-insertions to get the trigger to move forward just enough to let the trigger safety engage properly, be sure to remove any mold burs off the trigger safety this will save you a few thousands on the pre-travel stop.

Be sure to put a very small radius on that top corner (the corner closest to the number 1 in the picture). If you leave a sharp corner or bur on that top corner it can cause the pre-travel stop to dig into the frame when you release the trigger and the trigger bar may not pop back up to re-engage with the sear properly.

I also found that edge A in the figure was hitting the back side of the frame just about the same time the pre-travel stop was stopping the trigger were I wanted. This would cause it to occasion not let the trigger bar go back enough to let the safety engage. I used my file to break this corner with a 15-20 thousands radius. That seemed to let the pre-travel stop do the stopping rather than the end of the bar on the frame

Once the pre-travel stop was happy I put the sear group back in and started on the over-travel stop. Labeled #2 in the above figure. After reassembling the frame and pulling the trigger the sear did not move at all.

I found at this point that even with the sear group in you can still remove the trigger bar and easily reinsert it back. Just be sure to elevate the trigger end and hook the sear engagement into place under the small post on the striker safety lever.

I filed a small amount off the over-travel stop again using my small mill file and reinserted it. At this point I also notice that the long middle segment labeled C of the trigger bar had a slight bow to it (I am assuming it was possible from heat treating). This bow was cause the long segment to bow into the magazine well and that was causing the face labeled B to rub the side of the striker safety lever heavily. A few carefully raps with my hard rubber hammer on the anvil of my bench vice and I straightened that segment of the trigger bar out and just to be on the safe side I polished that face B to reduce friction. Along with the bur on the pre-travel stop this pressure on the striker safety was causing the trigger bar to not want to pop backup cleanly to re-engage the sear after the slide cycled.

After 2-3 removal-file-inserting of the trigger bar I had barely noticeable motion of the sear. Go slow on this over-travel stop a little bit of filing goes a long way especially if you have a Springer Sear kit. I put the slide on and tried it. The sear released the striker but it didn't sound quite right. A bic pen down the barrel quickly showed that although the sear was releasing the striker the striker safety was not being pushed up enough to disengage and let the striker make a full stroke. Removed the trigger bar and filed off a few more thousands and it was working very well.

I reassemble and tested thoroughly with the bic pen and snap caps.

Now the truth I did all of that but remove the bur on the top corner of the pre-travel stop and polish the face B and on the trigger bar before using it as today at a local match. At the match I had a few incidents were the trigger did not reset completely, if you follow the link above the you'll see me hesitate funny in the first two stages. Some of it was just breaking it in and some of it might have been me getting use to the different feel but I am pretty sure it was primarily due to the bur I left. By the fifth and last stage is was running perfectly and when cleaning it this evening I found that bur and just to be on the safe side I polish that face B. Every thing seems very happy now and hopefully I will prove that out at practice this coming Wednesday.

How does it feel? Sweet, very smooth. I have not measure the difference in travel but subjectively dry firing it and comparing it to my XD-40 service that has a stock trigger and sear the travel is much much reduced and the trigger breaks clean with very little over travel.

It took a touch more fitting than I though it would but in the end I am very please with the results and thought it well worth the price. IMHO it is not a mod for a newbie to working on firearms but if you have completely stripped your lower before and put it back together and the gun still worked properly, you didn't have any spare parts, and you are willing to take your time you should be able to do it in 1.5-2 hours with little trouble.

Hope that was mildly useful. I will update this thread with more evaluation as I get to shoot it more. If you guys want I can even stripped my XD down again and show you pictures of exactly what mine now looks like after fitting.

Rambling
mcb

[Old School]

This was very well done and I am sure that anyone who bought the trigger bar will find your information to be very helpful.

Nice job!

[mcb]

Originally Posted by Old School

This was very well done and I am sure that anyone who bought the trigger bar will find your information to be very helpful.

Nice job!

Thanks Old School, I love tinkering with my guns and this little project was fun to do, a bit meticulous but still fun. Like I said I am now very comfortable stripping the frame down and reassembling it after this little project.

mcb

[XD9XD9]

great info, if u could take those after pictures of the XD stripped down that would be a great help. I'm going to start putting mine together tonight.....

[mcb]

Lots of pictures to add:



The top view of the frame muzzle to the right.



That corner I was talking about that had the bur that was catching on the polymer frame.



Notice wear on the face were the striker safety lever rubbed the trigger bar



Top View













mcb

[Old School]

Again, well done!

[Loves2Shoot]

Nice, I would add a bit more angle to the to of the bar where you radius it, as when it drops down to reset. I'll be out of town this week and be posting more on this topic when I return on the 25th and get caught up on the shop work the guys got done while I'm out.

Great JOB!!! It doesn't look like I'll have much to have to add.

[XD9XD9]

mcb you rule! this is exactly the type of helpful, clear, and illustrated help that xdtalk needs.

[AlaskaXD]

+1

[atmiller]

mcb, thanks for the great post. Your original post got me through my installation. The photos you've added would have made it even easier.

Pistol Gear and Springer should sticky this thread.

Thanks again mcb.