I have a blued CS9 that I bought used. It's in excellent shape. Looks hardly shot at all. When I first got it, pushing out the slide lock lever to field strip was difficult, but do-able with my finger. The it got harder to do, so I need to press a punch into it to get it out. Now, I have to use a punch and a mallet to get it out. The gun functions fine. The recoil spring seems to be not very tense. It hardly has to contract to get on the guiderod and sit on the slide. Also, the guide rod sticks out a tiny bit from the front of the slide. I can press it in, but when my finger comes off it, it pops out a tiny bit again. I have a new recoil spring on the way. Could the two issues be related? Field stripping this gun is very difficult

Not uncommon.

If you have a plastic (nylon) guide rod plunger it becomes a bit worn and ragged as time passes and the gun is repeatedly field-stripped.

It can be replaced, though. The plunger and spring can be "twisted & pulled" out of the rod body and are inserted the same way. Sometimes the plunger comes out of the spring, but it can be snapped back into it easily enough.

There's also a steel plunger which is available (and was used as the stock plunger at one time or another), but it introduces its own potential difficulties as now you're back to having to push the slide stop lever past the steel plunger (which involves the lever depressing the plunger head as the lever's pin (containing a recessed notch which holds the plunger head) is pushed past the plunger head for disassembly.

I've used both the plastic and steel plungers, and I'm presently back to using plastic plungers in both of my CS pistols.

Here's a couple of pictures of a CS guide rod, with both the plastic & steel plunger in one of the pictures, as well as another one (from my 4013TSW, as I recall) showing the plunger removed from the guide rod body.





The front of the guide rod typically protrudes a small amount from the slide's dustcover (under some tension from the plunger spring as the plunger is pressed against the notch in the pin of the slides top lever).

Here's a couple of pictures of my CS9 illustrating the normal condition of the guide rod in an assembled gun.

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Ret LE Firearms inst & armorer

Thanks FB. I changed the guiderod to a steel one. So CS9 owners just have to deal with it? Punching the lever out isn't harmful? And my guide rod sticks out a bit more than yours. Can you press it in? Does it pop back out when your finger comes off it?