How To Install the Powder River Precision Safety Lever and Overtravel Stop

[powder river]

Originally Posted by hilefai

Installed my over travel and striker safety lever kit for my XD45. Went in like a charm. Took out the over travel stop three times to fit it, but one I got it right, man what a difference. Thanks Daniel!

You are welcome. Thank you for your business.

Daniel

[alaskazimm]

Another post to say Thank you, Daniel for a great and well designed product. I got the Striker Safety Kit and the over travel stop as well as the sear and trigger springs today. 45 minutes later it's all in and functioning great! Now I just need to get to the range.

Also mad props to propellerhead (he, he ) for this great write up. This helped make the install a smooth experience.

Thanks again guys!

[LoneOak]

I had my first difficulty installing a PRP Match Trigger Kit this past weekend. I really don't know why I had a difficult time with the install. This was the sixth kit I have installed, 2 on XD9-SC, 1 SC-40 and this was my third 45. This was the first time it has taken me more than an hour and a half for any of the install since I did my XD-9-SC first way back last summer. This 45 just didn't want to work and I really don't understand why.

Immediately after putting the Safety Striker Lever-SSL- I couldn't get the trigger to reset the way Daniel shows it in his video that I bought after doing 5 installs. I really wanted to see if he was doing anything different from me and I was ammazed that our techniques were nearly the same but some of his reassemble techniques were easier than mine. After installing the SSL the trigger wouldn't reset so we disassembled and began removing material from the back of the triangle on the SST. Still it seemed the trigger bar needed just a slight .00005 amount of pressure to make it reset. We got out the flitz polished and began rubbing everything in sight and reinstalled the entire group. We're feeling this may be it so lets put in the OTS. Well I made a mistake and didn't look at the ots just right and explained totally wrong to the gun owner my helper how much needed to be removed from surface A before we start on the B surface. Well he removed way to much from the A side and the piece was virtually usless. I take all the blame as the teacher, I misinfromed the dude and he filled away.

Just so happened that I had an extra OTS for a 9/40 and it looked so close to the 45 model that I thought we would give it a try.

Everybody took a dinner break.

After dinner I began shaping the OTS the way I knew it would have to look with frequent comparsions to my XD9. Well Damnit I took off a little too much. About this time the gun owner was polishing the SST lever and began to slowly remove material from the surface show in the pg 19 pictures, then I put the Sear SST and trigger back in and it reset every time. Polish it all again and put it all back together again. I'm getting real good at getting it back together after about 20 tries in the last few hours. Now all back together smooth lubed and ready to go but the damn trigger won't reset in a normal dry fire mode. If you fire it dry and rack the slide and let it drop yes it resets. If you dryfire and hold the trigger and try to measure the reset(something I have done with all my installs) the damn thing won;t reset for squat.

I damn near gave up and put all the factory parts back in the gun but we decided-since all the safeties worked- that we would try firing it live a few times and see if it maybe worked itself in. It was a brand new gun that had never been fired before. It might need to be broken in slightly.

Iam totally embarassed as I have been braging about what a great job I was doing on folks XD pistols and how fine they were shooting later. I totally flubbed this job but neither I nor the guns owner have given up and will continue on.

We removed a lot of material from the triangle area of the SST and a lot from the area show on pg19 and the guns trigger will still not reset. The owner took it home and the next day disasembled the gun again and under magnification debured the triangle and removed another .001 of so from its surface. After the sixth time he sent me a pm and said that the trigger was now resetting everytime, but we though this same thing after about the 3rd time the day before.

He has ordered a new OTS which we will attempt not to butcher this time and he is kind enough to relplace the one I had in Parts stash.

Daniell can you tell us maybe what we did wrong and what we need to do to prevent this in the future. I am setting up a gunsmith area in my home and really need to get good at this as I would like to be able to do it far a lot more people.

What is your opinion on doing it on a gun with nothing down the pipe in other words a brand new gun, could this of been our problem or did we maybe have the wrong SSL somehow.

A customer with the initals BO from Ga may have already contacted you. I really enjoy doing this as I like the work and I use it as a teaching tool to my fellow GeorgiaCarry.org members. I don't know a lot in life but the things I do know I really enjoy sharing my wisdom about to anyone that will listen. When it comes to the XD pistol most all of its owners really want to know how to take them apart and put em back together and I can help with that. And That Makes Me Feel Good. I should have been a teacher or a gunsmith.

[powder river]

I can point out some things to watch out for. The most that I have ever had to remove off the reset "tab" is .005". If you have to remove more then that stop and make sure that the trigger bar is moving all the way back. (The "hump" of the trigger bar should be touching at the back of the frame.) If it is not and you are working on a 45 I may have sent you a 9mm/40 ots by mistake.

You could check the hook on the trigger bar and make sure that it is square and free of burrs (don't remove more materiel then necessary, just knock off the burrs) This is more typical of a new pistol.

If you have any questions, feel free to give me a call. 541 403 2998

[ForTehNguyen]

I ordered a XDM PRP kit for my stepdad's XDM9. I've installed 3 regular XD PRP kits, are there any differences in the installation procedure? I noticed there some extra piece of metal on the trigger bar for XDM vs the XD. I was thinking that was for when you field strip it, that you dont have to pull the trigger on the XDM to get the slide off.

[DotyThaXD]

Thanks for this guide! Made the install completely painless. Love my XD even more now.

[whitesoxfan1]

I saw on the PRP website that the XDM trigger comes with either polymer or stainless. I was wondering if one is better than the other. I look forward to upgrading my XDM 9 with this kit with all the positive feedback I've read.

[LoneOak]

I just put a stainless Overtravel stop in my XD-9-SC and it works great. I previously had the polymer OT stop and it worked okay also. With the Stainless part I was able to more accurately remove material to make it match up with the trigger bar which resulted in more contact area between the two parts and a slightly better feel on the trigger after it fires the weapon.

I have virtually no overtravel now on my trigger but it did take me longer to install it than the previous installs I had done with the polymer part. I mounted the part in my vise and slowly began removing material from both the A and B surfaces a file stroke at a time. I also used a dial caliper to measure how much material I was removing after each session with the file. I installed the OTS part several times before I reached the point where I felt it was about to release the sear and fire the weapon. At this point I removed a .001 or .002 two or three more times till I reached the point where the trigger released the sear causing the gun to fire and leaving 0 overtravel.

It took me a couple days of filing (in my spare time) where I was able to do the polymer part in just a couple hours but the trigger in my XD just keeps getting better and better. The travel and pull are so close to my Springer 1911 that I can now shoot a mag in one and then a mag in the other one and be very accurate with both because the travel and feel of the triggers is so close. I just have to remember if I am holding a 9 or a 45 when that trigger does break. The 45 has much more of a wholop but it is also a more accurate gun even though I generally carry my XD-9-SC because it is lighter and just a little bit easier to conceal. With the 9, if 14 rnds (using the new Springfield 13 rnd mags and one in the chamber) of Winchester Bonded 147gr Jhp Lawmans ammo isn't enough to get me out of a bad situation then I am definetely in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[cineski]

I noticed the striker safety lever is now CNC machined from tool steel vs the previous MIM. Were there problems with the MIM breaking that caused the switchover?

[powder river]

Originally Posted by cineski

I noticed the striker safety lever is now CNC machined from tool steel vs the previous MIM. Were there problems with the MIM breaking that caused the switchover?

The lever has always been CNC machined from S7 tool steel. I have changed some of the dimensions after the first 100 parts that I made. This was to make fitting easier and it also helped with the fixtures used in manufacturing the parts.