I had my M&P Shield broken down for cleaning. When I reassembled it and went to rack it, the takedown lever came half way out. I cannot get it set flush nor can I break down the gun either. It does rotate but does not set flush. How do I resolve this?

You got a bunch of views and no comments. Not a good sign. Sounds like a fiddle fest coming up. I would make sure that the mag safety lever pulled down so at least that feature is not locking anything. Good luck.

Did you remove the takedown when you disassembled it? You will not likely get it back in flush with the recoil spring tension on it.

Can you not rack the slide at all? How about back to the lock position?

There is a little tang that has to be aligned in order for the take down pin to be fully inserted. Try rotating the lever to around 2 O'clock or so and see if it won't go in when you hit the "sweet spot". Good luck!

I agree, if you accidentally rotated it too far upward past horizontal when it was taken down, it may have "unlocked". Look at this video to see how it unlocks.

As NoogMan wrote, there's a 'nipple'-like thing that locks the takedown lever into the frame. If you manhandle it too hard, it might mess things up.

Watch that Apex video and it will describe what you need to do.

Thank you everyone for those tips. I was able to rack it, just not at the time get it pushed back in. A friend of mine managed to find the sweet spot and remove the lever. The slide then came off, we reinserted the lever, reracked it, and viola! It worked. Thank you especially for the picture of the 2 O'clock notch, I never even noticed that before.

Glad we could help! Most of all, glad you got it back together!

Please do not use a mallet