Quote:
Originally Posted by gc70
Fastbolt, do you have any idea about when S&W switched from thin 9mm barrels with a flared muzzle area to straight 9mm barrels (or vice versa, as the case may be)?
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Nope. We were using the SW9940's, and I didn't see but a couple of the 9's come through. I remember in one of the armorer recerts they mentioned that the S&W engineers had made a revision to the 9mm slide (a lightening cut, I think it was called, to reduce the weight of the 9mm slide so the same RSA could be used in the 9/.40 models).
FWIW, my SAE series SW999C has a straight profile barrel.
There were making a series of revisions to the .40 barrels, though, and I saw a lot of them come through. Changes to the barrel hood (slightly softened the top/front of the barrel hood corners to better drop underneath the slide's ejection port); the chamber mouth (slight adjustment of feed ramp & chamber mouth); the muzzle crowns (varied); and the clearance cuts on the bottom of the barrel (to give some increased clearance with the RSA spring coils during cycling). Those clearance cuts varied a bit over time, too (length and width). Less drag on the barrel from the top edges of the spring coils. The earlier barrels could acquire some more noticeable chatter and rub marks at the rear on the bottom, where it dropped down over the compressed RSA spring.
The .40 & 9 extractors got at least one change, as well. I saw the hooks become better polished and have a clearance bevel on the bottom (from Walther).
The S&W engineers incorporated the use of an "optional" extractor or spring, which was actually the same spring used for the mag catch lever. It was a heavier spring, and they started using it in the .40's, the .45 and the 990L's. We were told that if we ever saw failures-to-extract in any 9's, to use the heavier "optional" spring. When someone brought me their P99 AS Titanium 9mm for a failure-to-extract problem, I called back to the factory and asked about using the heavier spring in the P99's. I was told to go ahead and use it to replace the lighter original spring. It restored normal function in that P99 9mm.
At one point they also sent out a notice for armorers to reverse the orientation of the extractor spring's position in the slide's spring hole. The original Walther orientation was to install the "tornado-shaped" spring with the large "tight" end forced down into the bottom of the hole. S&W engineers eventually decided that installing the spring so the small "loose" end of the spring went into the hole was preferable for reliable feeding and extraction in the SW99/990L's. The small end was always fully against the bottom of the inside of the slide's hole, and the large end rested flat against the extractor tail. We made the changes and the guns continued to run fine.
FWIW, I noticed that toward then end of the production for the licensed SW99/990L models, a couple of times when I ordered new (spare) striker springs through either S&W Parts or Walther America Parts (who got them directly from Walther), the ones I received were the same silver color, but they were different than a few "old-stock" new springs I'd previously received from them.
The Part number was 262737. (I was told that the 990L striker springs were heavier, but I was only ordering spare springs for the standard 99/AS guns.) While the newer springs were the same silver color and had the same number of coils (24), the newer springs had a longer free length (by approx 3 coils). This was compared to the free length of the remaining unused silver springs I'd previously received. A call to the factory just confirmed they were the current striker springs Walther was shipping to the US for the P99/SW99 AS model guns. The best guess by the parts guy was that the Walther engineers had made a revision to the standard striker spring.
Oh well, it's not like that doesn't happen.
The spare sear housing blocks I received after a while had certainly been revised by Walther. The bodies were narrower at one point, but the bottom hollow pin was longer (making the assembly wider), so it looked like the newer assemblies wouldn't fit down inside the earlier SW99 frames unless the pin was replaced with a shorter earlier one.
When I called the factory one of the techs told me that Walther had made a revision to the inside of the 99 frames, and that the sear housing block dimensions had changed as a result. He confirmed that if I ever had to replace a sear housing block in an older frame, that I did indeed have to substitute the bottom hollow pin for an older one.
The funny thing was that as armorers we were told
not to ever disassemble the sear housing blocks ... except ...
The plastic sear pin (upper pin) which holds the single action sear and its spring in place can fall out the left side of its hole if the block is removed from the frame. Like sitting the sear block on its left side on a bench, or when mailed inside a small shipping bag. So, we were shown how to put the spring back inside the sear lever and then capture both the lever and spring with the sear pin.
Naturally, the first time I decided to order a spare sear housing block, it had disassembled itself in that respect during shipping.
Practice.
This shows an original sear housing block on the left, and a couple newer ones, with the different length bottom pins installed.
BTW, this style of sear block was later revised by Walther to replace the trigger bar guide post (circled in red in next pic) with a lever. Instead of replacing the guide post (different heights) if required in a particular AS gun (due to "timing" the DA and SA trigger/safety block functions), the new steel lever on the outside of the block was adjustable (screw). That changed the block design and the inside of the frame. (I was told by Walther that the blocks using the post or the lever are
not interchangeable due to differences in the frames made to accommodate the differently designed sear blocks.)
Fortunately, I only have to support the older style 99 AS guns I own, and those of anyone I may know who still owns and uses the older style guns. I have no plans to try to become certified as a LE armorer for the new Walther company, as my former agency doesn't use the old ones anymore, nor authorizes the new ones as duty weapons.
They are fine guns, though. Of any vintage. Robust, durable and reliable. The only reason I even ordered some spare sear housing blocks was because the ejector is molded into the plastic block, and a broken ejector requires replacing the block with a new one.
If I were still working, and could still buy pistols not on CA's roster, I'd give some careful thought to buying one of the steel-framed competition models. Just because.
SW99
SW990L .40
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