Sd9ve Slide grinding / binding

[Ernie F]

Just wondering who else has had this issue . Gun is 8 months old and racking nice and smooth then it started to bind and grind . Sent it in to Sw and it was sent back saying nothing was wrong ? Have been to local GS's and tried 2 at a time one nice and smooth next one grinds and binds ? I know it's an entry level gun for a newbie like myself but this has made me lose confidence in it . Anyone have similar experience ? Ernie

[OKFC05]

Don't know about "bind and grind", but have corrected several that the operator did not properly position the RSA and tried to force the slide on.
The RSA must be on the bottom step and centered.

[adrianolsen]

guns are like cars, need oil or they don't work. oil the barrel and rails.

[ADP3]

My best suggestion is to change out your Recoil Spring Assembly. The Flat Coil Spring has a an edge to it that a Round Wire Spring doesn't. The Recoil Spring Guide Rod is plastic so it gets rougher the more the spring scrapes back and forth. Changing out your RSA may restore the smooth operation you initially experienced. I keep one RSA in my range bag for prolonged use and keep a fresher (but tested) RSA in my SD9VE for carry. Hope this helps.

Best Regards,
ADP3

[jbtrucker]

Midway has SD series RSA $7.39 or S&W may send one for free, got a freebie for my Shield

[touchoneoff]

Yeah, the Sigma and SD series can sometimes do this...I have had both, so that is how I know. The old Sigma I had in .40 was about the smoothest of the three total I had, but now just go for the M&P's.

[RGVshooter]

Are you sure the Pistol is actually grinding?

I've handled several SD9VE's and a couple SD40VE's and when you rack the slide, they do have a distinctive metallic sound that is different than the M&P's & other higher end manufacturers. It's hard for me to describe the sound on a keyboard other than yes, they do have a distinctive sound that after some thought, yes, can be considered to be "grinding"...

No.... I'm quite sure its not grinding on ya.. It's fine.

[SamMeow]

If it slides, grease it
If it rotates, oil.

Use grease like ya use brylcreem, a little dab will do ya.

[3hounds]

He'll never respond again, 1st post and probably only post. Personally I would color the 4 tabs the slide rides on with marker after cleaning gun very well, put it back together the right way and see what is binding. If not tabs color everything then check for rub marks. Does your slide have a lot of play, side to side or up and down play ? When I received mine I ground the front and back of tabs to a rounded shape, they had very sharp edges.

[Ernie F]

Thank you all for your suggestions . I have had 3 gunsmith look at it and they all agree it does not feel or sound right , one marked the inside to see where it was binding but could not find it . My point is they lubed it , I have lubed it , they are all willing to work on a 9 month old gun that has a lifetime warranty that SW sent back to me saying nothing is wrong but makes the noise . 2 of the gunsmiths had sd9ve's and agreed there was a difference when racking mine versus theirs . Just caught in a hard place if I let them work on it SW will probably void warranty and not sure it makes sense to send it back to SW again . I will try replacing the parts that you suggested. Thank you again !

[3hounds]

HOLY CROW YOUR BACK, MY APOLOGIES TO YOU. Most of the time they never return & let us know what happened ?
Ok if they marked the inside probably with Dykem blue ? they didn't mark EVERYTHING ? I MEAN EVERYTHING.

The whole barrel, the slide tabs, inside the slide, firing pin, locking block, everywhere there's a contact point on the gun.

Mine was racking with a slight roughness to it, had a heck of a time figuring it out. It ended up being the small cups on the firing pin. I had to chamfer the edges with a small file then fine sandpaper.

For some reason the 1 cup was sticking out, not sitting tight in the slot, so it was rubbing on the plastic liner inside the channel.

I'm telling ya take a marker color the whole inside of gun (contact points) rack the slide about 10 times and see where it rubs off, gun must be free of oil and grease though.

If it doesn't show with 10 racks, rack it some more or actually shoot it a few times to find out where it's rubbing off.

Good Luck & PLEASE LET US KNOW HOW IT TURNS OUT.

3 out

[3hounds]

1 more thing you said you've tried 2 at the gun shop 1 was ok other 1 not so much ?

You can't really go by that some have left over chips, piece of metal left over from the machining process. That's why you should totally tear the gun down and clean before trying it out.

That is if you are mechanically inclined ? Some here never tore the gun completely down, there's a lot of places that need to be polished or cleaned out on some of these guns.

Their not hand built guns production line guns and sometimes the tools get worn out too much before they replace the tool. If you get 1 of these guns they will be rough, have marks in them from the dull tools.

I have 2 and the machining differences on the guns are like night and day, had to do a lot of work on 1 to get it like butter but still keep it tight. Polishing parts not removing metal in most cases is what I had to do.

I used mothers mag polish on felt polishing wheel with my dremel, also very fine files and sandpaper wrapped around whatever fit in the space I was polishing or removing tool marks.

A lot of people don't like to mess with the internals but WOW what a difference it makes. That is if you know what you're doing ?

3 out.

[Ernie F]

Thank you , I'm going to try .