WILL THE FACTORY SIGMA RECOIL SPRING FIT OVER A WOLF STEEL GUIDE ROD?

[brettskywalker]

Does the factory flat recoil spring fit over an aftermarket steel guide rod? I haven't had any problems with my wolf recoil spring & rod, but when I was cleaning my sigma 40 last night it appeared that the recoil spring is slightly bent. After thinking about it a while, I am thinking this ever so slightly bent spring could be the reason for the uneven wear marks on the top of the barrel block where the slide runs over it. My factory recoil spring & rod have a very low round count, I just don't like the idea of a plastic rod. I don't see why it wouldn't fit, but want some 1st hand accounts of those that have tried & if it was a success or fail.

[OKFC05]

The stock recoil rod assembly is superior to the wolff assembly in that the wolff SPRING itself, being an old style piano wire spring, needs replacement much more often.
The parts of the two styles do not interchange.

Either buy extra wolff springs and change them as needed (distorted or shortened) or just use the stock assembly.

By the way, I have used Sigmas for loaners and trainers for coming up on 2 decades, and I have never had the stock recoil assembly fail in use. You have to remove it anyway to clean the gun, and it is simple to inspect and replace at the sign of any chipping or wear, which takes a LOT of shooting.

[brettskywalker]

I put the factory captured spring & rod combo back in. I saw online somewhere a steel guide rod with captured spring & I want to say it was an actual s & w part. Is that correct? Does s&w now sell a replacement steel rod &spring for sigmas?

[leejack]

I'm surprised that your original plastic rod had problems causing the need for a change in the first place. I would have thought that the factory rod would have lasted 100 years.

[brettskywalker]

No I never had problems with the factory captured spring & guide rod, the fact that the rod is plastic just doesn't sit well with me. I will run it with my factory spring & rod & see how it goes. So far throughout the life of the gun all the problems I ever had was when it was still under 1000 rounds, could've been ammo related or my lefty little brothers limp wrist. Now that it has 5x that much it seems to run just fine. The only thing that seems unusual is the wear pattern on the barrel, chamber top side where 40 S&W is engraved. Where the slide travels over that block portion of the barrel, looking from the top, there are more & longer wear marks on the left & get shorter as you move to the right. Again this is only on the front, top side of chamber block where 40 S&W is engraved. Which makes me wonder if the diagonal wear is due to the slightly bent recoil spring. My m&p 45 wears evenly across the top of the chamber barrel block

[retired_diver]

try here: Galloway Precision :: Smith & Wesson® Performance :: Sigma and SD Performance Parts
It will provide what you want IMO

[JULMAR]

About a month ago I bought an S/W SD40VE. It shot flawlessly over 200 rounds with no failures. Today I changed the stock polymer rod and spring for the Galloway stainless steel but I used 20lb instead of the factory load which I think is 18 lbs. After shooting 50 rounds the pistol began jamming and the ammo. twisted to a side before entering the chamber. Well, I came home and replaced the rod with the factory one and will go tomorrow to the shooting range to see if it fails again. Any ideas why this could be happening?? Thanks in advance...

[leejack]

Originally Posted by JULMAR

Well, I came home and replaced the rod with the factory one and will go tomorrow to the shooting range to see if it fails again. Any ideas why this could be happening?? Thanks in advance...

I'd bet my paycheck that it works fine now that the factory stuff is back in.

People are obsessed with modifying these guns. No need to jump me, I know many feel as strongly about the mods as I do leaving it alone.

The old military saying applies; "if it ain't broke".....

[brettskywalker]

Wow that really sucks! Put a new part in that I would consider an upgrade, just by the fact you are replacing plastic with steel, & the gun begins to malfunction. I hope you can get your money back or a new part. I read on another thread of people having problems with & also saying the sigma will not function properly with a steel guide rod. When I bought my sigma there were no aftermarket upgrades for it until a year or so later. My father in law always gave me **** about the plastic recoil rod, so when the wolf steel guide rod & springs became available I jumped on it. Funny thing is I never had any malfunctions after installing the wolf products, & they have seen nearly 4k rounds. My sigma is my loaner range fun for gun family & friends, it usually eats 3-500 rounds over an extended period of time before it gets a cleaning. Last night it received a cleaning &.that's when I noticed the wolf recoil spring appeared to be slightly bent somewhere.

[brettskywalker]

Basically I'd like to use the stock spring with the wolf steel guide rod. Just need to know if it will work before I go & free it from the factory rod

[JULMAR]

I know you can take apart the Galloway steel rod but I don't know if the factory one can be disassembled and put the factory spring over the steel rod. I have never seen the Wolff one, is there any difference between the Galloway and this one?

[brettskywalker]

Let me see if I can upload a pic of the wolfgunsprings guide rod & recoil spring. Well damn! It keeps saying failed to upload! File size is correct jpeg. I just took another pic of the rod &.spring with the original package they came in. I ll try again later, maybe my wifi is screwy

[JULMAR]

Just came from the shooting range and sprayed over 2 cases of ammo down the range, not even a single failure or jamming occurred with the stock guide and spring contrary with the Galloway 20lb rod and spring. I am thinking my SD40 does not like a spring over the factory load one...

[spricks]

I have no problems with my factory 40ve and just wanted to check what's up with the conversions, because this is the only firearm I own with the polymer guide rod, and was thinking a upgrade might be in order. But I guess I will just keep the gun original …. because it works and never failed. S&W had it right with what works.....again.

spricks

[S&W Rover]

A year or so ago there was a long thread about replacement guide rods for the SD9VE... and the consensus conclusion was to use after-market metal guide rods and springs with caution, since dimensional differences were noted in some cases to lead to battering of the SD frame.

The plastic factory recoil spring assembly (RSA) can break, but reports of that happening are pretty hard to find.

Seems to me that anyone worried about the plastic RSA breaking could 1) inspect it when cleaning and 2) keep a spare RSA in the range bag in case it is needed. This is not an expensive part, and is available from several on-line vendors for less than $10. It is also feasible to order one from S&W directly (if you send an old/broken one to them, they will certainly replace it for free).

[Arizona Ghost]

S&W spent tens of thou$and$ in research and development on every gun they make. They know what works best. Keep it OEM.

[ADP3]

My advice is to keep one factory RSA for just range use and after a few boxes of ammo reserve another factory RSA for carry/self defense use. This way you have a proven RSA for self defense and the range RSA gets the bulk of the wear.

Best Regards,
ADP3