For those who installed this kit, what part seemed to be the most difficult? Thanks! Smith and Wesson M&P Parts

at an idpa match today, a guy had this whole kit on his m&p 9 :https://apextactical.com/store/produ...php?pid54.html
he did it himself, said it was a little difficult, but not a huge deal. the trigger did feel AMAZING tho. i thought my gun was great, until i felt his.... definately on my list of upgrades

For me, removing the rear sight without a sight tool. Used a piece of delrin and small hammer to remove it. Don't forget the set screw.

Take your time, follow the videos exactly, lay the parts out in the order you remove them, safety check as indicated and don't drop the small parts on the floor! You'll love it.

First, be sure you have the correct tools; brass punch, brass hammer, roll pin punches, tweezers, bench vice, roll of duct tape (or whatever) to work on, YouTube, and plenty of time. With that my experience (with 3 kits) has been:

USB; Child's play. Rear sight drifts to the right without a problem.

Sear block; Removes easily and parts install easily. It always take me a bit to align the assembly to get it just right so it goes back in without forcing. Must be me because for Randy it drops right in.

Trigger block; Easy to remove and modify. Takes me a few tries to get the trigger and trigger bar aligned correctly for reassembly. Part of trick is to keep trigger bar positioned under sear correctly.

Again, the keys are to have the right tools so you are not barking things up, reference Randy on YouTube, and take your time.

BTW; you can buy the kit direct from Apex and I'm guessing they have stock.

I have every thing but the brass punch and bench vise but, I have an aluminium rod that I managed to move the rear sight with a little but,I want to wait til my kit gets here today so I'll have the tool to help keep the spring etc. from flying out under sight. No tweezers but, I bought a pair of Hemostats from Radio Shack which have came in handy. I have practiced taking out and reinstalling the sear block assembly and sear several times. The Apex FRE extractor went in pretty easily I kind of figured, the new trigger spring might be a little tricky to get back in as well, as sear spring and plunger? My neighbor has a bench vice if I have any trouble removing/installing the rear sight.

I found the trigger spring installation to be the trickiest part. Just need some patience.

That was my guess just looking at it with the slide off.

For the sight I used a short handled Craftsman flat screwdriver. I covered the blade end with a few pieces of painters tape so as not to scratch the finish. Worked like a charm. The blade fit was thick and wide enough to fit the dovetail channel perfectly.

Sounds like you are well on your way. Aluminum is fine. If you file a flat on the rod it'll give you more bearing surface and lessen the chance of slipping. I always cover with tape too. Use your neighbor's vice but be sure to pad the jaws with leather or plastic.

Hemostats or small needle nose pliers will work.

When you put the aluminum pin in to position the trigger spring be sure the bullet nose faces the right. I always forget that.

I did the full DCAEK and RAM on my M&P 40.

The ONLY hard part was the sights. The rear was a pain (used brass punch) and the FRONT was shear hell (I also changed sights, front not required for any APEX part kit.) I have helped with a few of these kits now, and the only hard part is the rear sight remove and replace.

If you follow the described intructions / video the difficulty will be the trigger spring. I have found that removing the forward AND rear block, replace all parts as instructed, install trigger bar into rear block, install forward block and replace guide pin with frame pin, lifting rear block slightly to remove preassure on trigger spring, then press rear block in place. I have found this is MUCH easier than trying to align the trigger spring in place.

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Gerry

I guess the rear sights must vary, I'm very mechanical and mine was a PITA. The rest of it easy.

Well, I got the job done took me almost 2 hours though. I sure do appreciate all the help!

LOL, this is late, the rear site was hard to remove, but the worst was tring to get the trigger spring into place, well untill I figured out that was what the slave pin was for... Uhhh what an *** i felt like... Got it done and love it...

Cant't wait, my FSS kit comes in tomorrow...

*Edit*
I just got done installing the kit. If you have alittle bit of mechanical know-how, you should be able get it done no problem. Following along with Randy's youtube video, the rear sight was pretty simple and strait forward. The trickiest part (for me) was getting everything lined up for the trigger assembly but running a smaller roll punch through from the right side and pushing it back out with the roll pin seem to work very well. The whole job took about 35mins. Not too bad considering I've done no smithing (if you wanna call it that) in the past. I haven't run live ammo through it yet but even dry firing feels amazing. I'm going to the range on saturday so I'll report back after.

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9mm, 5.45X39, 7.62X39

All these positive reviews have caused me to order a DCAEK kit for my M&P9. I love the gun, and really don't mind the trigger, but I gotta see what all the fuss is about for myself.

Don't forget to let us know what you think.

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Gerry

I went to the range yesterday with my son. He has a Glock 17 and I have the M&P9 FS. After each of us shooting a couple mags through our own guns, I asked him if he wanted to try my M&P as I had recently installed the APEX kit. He wasn't really sure what that was all about, so he said, "sure". His reply after trying it was short and sweet. He said, "Wow, that is really smooth"! Hey, that's what I thought...