There’s very little positive “click” when engaging the fire position, and then when dry fired, there’s a pretty fair amount of play in the switch.
It functions, but I don’t like how loose it feels.
I checked the selector spring and detent, and both appear good to go, but I’m at a loss to determine if this is going to cause any functional issues later on, or what I can do to repair this issue, short of installing a new selector switch altogether.
ETA: When switched to the safe position the familiar and reassuring click occurs, and there’s no play. Only when fire is engaged is the play introduced, and wonkiness ensues.
Check the detent indent on the selector switch itself. If the detent indent is too shallow or too rounded (bad machine work or tool) then the detent will ‘wallow’ and produce what you’re feeling.
don’t even have to do that, unless you want to replace the detent and spring at the same time. just turn the selector so it’s halfway between safe and fire, then punch it through… don’t even need to take the grip off.
I’ve given safeties a crisper more positive engagement feel by taking the appropriate sized drill bit and cleaning up the safety detent positions, along with hitting the tip of the safety detent with a jewelers file to give it a sharper tip.
I have found that installation of some aftermarket grips can produce the same spongy feel. I believe it’s attributable to variances in the depth to which the spring holes are drilled in manufacture.
To address it, and perhaps it may work in the OP’s case, I’ve pushed a piece of rod segment into the bottom of the spring hole to give the spring more tension on the detent and selector. Injecting an epoxy is an alternative, as is installing a different spring.
yup… if you thumb nail is long enough (trim your damn fingernails!), you can probably plung the detent with it while you slide it back in, otherwise just use a large punch to hold the detent down while you push the selector back in.
You can take this out of the realm of subjectivity by measuring the depth of the hole in a “factory” grip, then comparing that number with that of the MOE grip or Tango Down grip or whatever. I should do that myself. I just swapped a “factory” grip for an MOE.
I had a RRA selector that had a really weird dimple on the safety selector, it was as if somebody used a punch to make the dimple and some metal was displaced into the groove for the safety detent. After some filing too smooth the groove to dimple transition, I used a spring loaded nail set that I use for staking receiver endplates to give the dimple more of a conical cross section and it works perfectly now.
