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Old 12-28-2012, 04:08 AM
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SMMAssociates SMMAssociates is offline
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Some models of the M&P series have an ejector that's all but just hanging there. Fairly easy to lose it when working on the gun (as in "installing a DCAEK kit", for example), but more in line with this situation, it probably fell off during final assembly. Since the gun can work without it (although I'd not trust it), it probably made it past the "fire a couple rounds" test.

Both versions that I've seen might be subject to this - and both will almost work .... Either way, it's a pretty trivial swap, but you do have to remove the sear block. Randy Lee's DCAEK install videos cover that well enough, and there may be others out there.

(I've done three of those, and pulled two of them apart a second time for a RAM kit. The toughest part, besides not dropping the ejector or forgetting it, is getting the thing to line up and drop into place as you're done and ready to drive the pins back in place. DO grab up a matching roller pin punch - 1/8", I think - though. A standard punch will trash the roller pin.)

I'm not sure who's got the ejectors - maybe Speed Shooter's Supply. Somebody should have a source if S&W won't sell one directly. (Pretty sure they will.)

Probably about a half-hour of bench time if you have to grab a local smith. No idea what they're charging now, but $50 would have been a good guess the last time I needed one. He's deceased, so I can't call him and ask .... I've got a hell of a plan with Verizon, but....

Not quite inexcusable to leave that part out, but leaving out the trigger would be easier to spot.... My little KelTec P3AT has an ejector that just sits in the frame. You MUST keep a couple spares 'cause they get lost during cleaning stripdowns, although a bit of grease will usually hold it in long enough to get the slide back on.

Then there was my brand-new 1973 Rambler Ambassador. I took it out to the former day job office (I was still working there until about 1992) and one of my buddies wanted to see how the reclining seats (unusual at the time) worked. Well, he reclined the driver's seat, and it refused to latch back up.... I was able to get the seat belt to hold the seat up well enough to get it back to the dealer's, and one of the guys fixed it pretty quickly. Seems that there were three ways to install the clutch assembly (no power), and two were wrong.... How did that get out of the assembly function? Easy.... When "new", there were enough burrs and other crud in the assembly that it sort of worked, and once latched up, stayed that way. But play with it a bit, and....

$4300 for that car - that's about $25,000 for a similar model today - and sidelined by a trivial assembly error - the part was there, but the designers didn't do a good enough job forcing the assemblers to get it right.... (The kid just bought herself a new Cherokee. I know there's a battery up there someplace, but all I could find were a pair of extra terminals on the fender well sides. I bet somebody leaves the battery clean out of one of those someday - it can be jump started, and will run, until you switch it off....)

Regards,
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