I just bought a new SD9VE and disassembled the gun to clean it. When I removed the striker to verify that it was clean and dry I noticed that it has the heavy striker spring held in by the plastic keepers, but there was also a very lightweight, much weaker spring at the front of the striker pushing it towards the rear.

Well, somehow I got this lighter spring jammed up when I reinstalled and it bent. I took the striker in my SD40VE apart to see if I could 'borrow' that spring for a range test and found that it didn't have one. It just had the main striker spring.

Is that lighter spring even needed? I got my SD40 used and it must have not had it when I got it. I haven't had any problems with it in the approximately 700 rds I have put through the gun.

I don't know how to answer you, because I don't know what you're talking about. I've owned several SD9VEs and one SD40VE, and in all of them the RSA was a captured unit, with the striker spring held between the cups and there wasn't a smaller spring.

I'm attaching an Apex video where changing out the spring is shown (simply because I don't have any pictures of my SD9VE) and there isn't a second spring shown, or that I can see.

Was yours loose? Attached in some way? Could it possibly have been an extraneous part that somehow found its way into your gun?

The second spring is only accessible once you take the striker assembly apart. It is there on my 40. Damned if I can figure out what it does.

Does have me curious now though. I might give S&W a call on Monday and see.. if I can remember.

Doc

Ah...well, I've never taken my striker apart. Just took it out and cleaned it, and put it back in, still assembled.

Where is it, based on the Apex video?

It can't be seen on the video, but after you get the striker spring off, the striker comes out of the white plastic sheath, and the second spring is on the striker shaft (hidden by the white sheath, when assembled)

Doc

Looks like the question is about a STRIKER SPRING. All the replies are about a RECOIL SPRING ASSEMBLY. Different animals all together.

I have been talking about the striker and its springs, Joe . I have not mentioned recoil at all.

Doc

Thanks...I understand now.

That was my fault...I mistakenly typed "RSA" in my post above when I meant striker. I edited my post above.

Thanks for the replies guys.


When you say plastic sheath, do you mean the one with the slot in it at the rear (that holds the rear cap on)?

So is the small spring supposed to push the striker towards the muzzle or towards the rear of the gun?

I was assuming that in went in the channel (towards the chamber) first before the striker went in to push the striker towards the rear and act as resistance to the gun dropping on the muzzle.

I tried Google searching but can't find a picture or diagram showing the smaller spring anywhere.

Yeah, the white plastic sheath.

Like I said, I have no idea what the spring does. It's position does not suggest any useful function. And you said your 40 shoots fine without it. My 40 has it, but I am not going to experiment by taking it out.

I am curious. I am going to call S&W in the morning and see if they will tell me.

Will let you know.

Doc

I just had my sd9Ve striker pin assembly out to clean it as I'm having failure to fire all too frequently and did not see a second spring
Norm

I would go to YOU TUBE and search for a video of complete disassemble of your specific gun.

There isn't one, Louchia

The best one is the Apex one that GKC posted.. and that does not show the striker shaft itself being pulled out of the plastic sheath to show the second spring.

It also doesn't show the sear disassembly.


Did you take apart the striker assembly completely Norm?

There used to be a commercial that said "Reading comprehension is vital" (or something to that effect.) After reading your post, and thinking it said that the Apex video DID show the shaft being pulled out and the second spring was visible, I watched the video several times. THEN, after NOT seeing the spring, repeatedly, I came back and read your post again, and the light bulb went on...I realized you said it DID NOT show the second spring.

Duh.

I can't tell you how many times I have done that, GKC.

And sometimes it's not just one word either.. I have gone back to something and realized what the hell, I wasn't even close!

Doc

Well, I went out and shot the 9mm without the second spring. I put about 400 rounds through it and no problems.

Neither gun has that second spring now and both work fine.

Why it was there in the first place is still a mystery. Dr Denby, if you do find out from S&W, I'd love to know what they say.

Thanks again.

Dave

I didn't take it completely apart, I did pull out 2 plastic sleeves
Not sure when I'll get back to the range to see if cleaning it made any difference
Norm

Does anyone know for sure if this striker assembly from midway fits the sd9ve ? If so thinking I might get one as a spare seeing as how I've heard that S&W won't sell them to consumers

Smith & Wesson Striker Assembly S&W M&P M&P Compact 9mm Luger 357 Sig

ok, you ready for this? I can't believe I am actually saying this..

Smith & Wesson technical support and their smiths have no idea what that second spring is for.

And get this, their schematics don't even show a second spring. They know it is there because they have taken it apart and worked on the gun, but their diagrams that they have don't even show it.

I thought they had me talking to a mail clerk or something this sounded so incredulous, but no I spoke to a couple levels, same answers.

Go figure.

Doc

That's crazy.

It sounds like it was added late in the design to pass some safety test and they never updated their diagrams.

It does not look like it star.

The SDVE striker slides thru a long groove in that white plastic sheath.

The one pictured does not look like there is a groove cut into the white plastic. It looks like the striker sticks up thru a "hole" in the sheath, rather than sliding along a groove.

By the way... the person I spoke with said you can buy parts for the SDVE, I specifically gave that model and he said yes.

He said parts can take 2 to 3 weeks, but you can buy parts.

Doc

I called S&W some time ago (over a year ago) and asked about buying a RSA and a striker assembly. (I like to have some spare parts on hand.) The person I spoke to said they would send me a RSA for free, since it was a normal wear/replace item, but that they wouldn't sell a striker assembly. I asked why, and he said that if there was a problem with the striker, they wanted to take a look at it and see what was going on, and fix it, since it shouldn't wear out in normal use.

Hmm

That seems like an odd thing for them to say. I mean this relatively thin point of metal is repeatedly slamming against metal. It may take a while, but logic says it WILL break.

I did not ask about the striker assembly specifically. I only asked if one can buy SDVE parts. They are sending me a striker spring, so you can at least order that.

Doc

It may have been the person I was speaking to. In the past, I've gotten different answers from different reps. For example, a while back, I wanted to buy some extended magazine base plates for my M&P9c, and one rep told me they couldn't sell me one. I called back, and the different rep said they would send me one for free (and they did.)

I took the SD9VE striker all the way apart as I wanted to measure the striker pin protrusion and I DO have the second small spring.

I have about .050 " of pin protrusion when the striker is pushed all the way forward with the striker block depressed. Does that measure up to anyone else's SD ?

Norm (would have posted a pic but all I get are URL links for posting )

With calipers I measured the distance between B and C with the striker pin flush with "A" , pushed striker pin all the way ahead(after depressing the striker block) and measured between B and C again....came up with about .050 " of movement

Norm

Attached Images

strikermeasurec.jpg (119.5 KB, 40 views)

Could a spring have been added to enable that model to pass the drop test required by some states?

It is a pretty light duty spring, I wonder if it is to just help with alignment . On another note I called S&W about my striker and they are sending me one free of charge!
Norm

So just to clarify the placement of the spring in question:

You guys are saying that the smaller spring goes on the striker first, then the white plastic sheath, then the large spring (the one that Apex has in their kit), then the white plastic keepers?

Awesome, Norm. Good deal.

When you receive it, if you could answer your own question about how far the striker tip is supposed to come out, I would like to know. And if you feel like checking, see if it has that silly second spring. It would be very interesting if it doesn't



Yes, Dmk, you are correct. And the spring appears quite useless with no noticeable function. It is small, thin, only a few coils that are spread well apart.

I don't see how it would provide any type of "safety". I wonder though, perhaps it was added just to say that there was a spring there. "hey idiotic regulations people, we added a second striker spring".. without mentioning that it is useless.

Doc

That sounds about right , it is a very light , weak spring . Now I wish I had taken a picture as I pulled it apart
Norm

Here is a picture of the springs

Attached Images

atrikersprings.jpg (28.2 KB, 88 views)

Thanks for the picture Norm!

Got the new striker assembly and It does have the second spring, I haven't had time to do the measuring. I ended up using the old plastic sleeve with the slot as the striker pin would hang when pushed in by hand and I traced it down to that sleeve, it was just too tight a fit.
Took it to the range and didn't have any fail to fire with 4 mags, I did have a fail to eject
Norm

Great to hear that that solved your FTF troubles, Norm.

The fail to eject is worrying, though if it happens again.

Gee, you got it in 4 days and you called them a day later than I did !

I have not got the spring yet and they said it could be 2-3 weeks!!

I am thinking they might not have liked my questioning the part and my disbelief that they did not have any idea why it was there.

Doc

I still suggest it is there to insure that the weapon passes the drop test, California in particular. I've posted that test before so won't re-post it here.

Although S&W doesn't condone users disassembling strikers, it seems that most folks on this forum have had theirs out. Maybe enough folks with older guns can determine a manufacturing date when that second spring appeared and relate it to the CA laws. (Microstamping is still part of the CA law but is not being enforced pending court proceedings.)

It looks like all S&W pistols and revolvers will fall off the CA roster on 1/1/2016.

http://certguns.doj.ca.gov/safeguns_resp.asp

I had the notion from prior trips to the various CA sites that when guns fall off the roster they have to be completely re-tested. Must not be accurate, however.

ADDED COMMENT - - - - - - -

I just noticed that Glock handguns fall off the CA roster on 1/1/2017. Also, the CA roster includes these comments, in RED.

No Generation 4 Glock handguns have been approved as of: Tuesday, November 24, 2015

No Glock handguns made in the USA have been approved as of: Tuesday, November 24, 2015

I have the Sigma SW9ve and it has the 2nd spring also, just had mine out today when I put the original spring back in and took out the APEX spring...too many light strikes. Went back to the range and it worked perfectly

I did the same thing. I experienced a few light strikes with no ignition with my SD40VE and the Apex striker spring. Every round fired on a second strike (these were premium HSTs and Gold Dots too).

That prompted me to swap back to the OEM striker spring on the SD40 and I didn't even install the Apex striker spring in the 9mm gun. It wasn't worth the risk to me.

If you take that small spring out, just be careful to not drop your gun when it's loaded!

If you do drop it when it's loaded be sure it doesn't fall barrel down on your foot.

The gun has a striker block.

Remove your slide and try to push the striker forward. You can't. Unless you pull the trigger and push the striker block up, the striker can not move forward enough to strike a primer.

The striker can not move forward under inertia alone and strike a primer.

Yes, indeed. The striker blocker is lifted by a lobe on the trigger bar. And yes, the SD series was drop tested in order to meet CA and other state requirements, but the question is: "Why did S&W put than meaningless spring into their guns?" It wasn't to save money and it wasn't to help pull the striker forward.

Why then add another part to a price-point gun?

I have previously suggested that this group, as a whole, try to see whether the addition of that spring relates to approval by any of the more restrictive states. I have posted a summary of the CA test requirements for reliability and safety.

I don't know about other states but some folks here must know when various changes were made.

I no longer live in California, having moved from there several years ago. I am open/closed carry licensed in this state but our gun lives at home except when it is able to go to a range.

One cannot say what happens when a gun is dropped. If you have time, look at some videos on lock picking and you will see that inertia plays a major part of some picking techniques. Could be that inertia comes into play when a gun is dropped.

Hello,I just purchased a SD9VE that the previous original owner put the Apex trigger spring kit in and I want to order the factory springs to put it back to factory specs.,what phone # to S&W are you using to order parts for the SD9VE?Ive checked the major gun parts sites but none of them are listing any factory springs for this model S&W at this time,thanks in advance for any help you can give.

By Telephone:
1-800-331-0852 (USA)
Mon-Fri 8:00AM-8:00PM Eastern Time

have s/n ready
If the CS won't ship you the parts call back later to see if you can get a different CS
Norm

FWIW, just a note of reference:

I just bought a new 9mm Shield. When I took it apart to give it a good cleaning, it has the same exact spring setup. The big striker spring and then a little one pushing back against it from the other side of the plastic tube.

It really doesn't make sense. I can't see how that thin little spring can overpower the bigger striker spring under any circumstance.

Thank you star1.

Kind of funny , got to the range this weekend and I wanted to make sure I did't have any more misfires after installing the new striker. Shot a round and misfire ! Darn , pulled slide back 2 times , no bang, finally ejected the round and it was one of my snapcaps !

The rest of the magazines went bang just like they should.
Norm

That's a good one, Norm

Am laughing with you not at you.

I have pulled some worse boners than that. Gaww that sounds awful!!!

Doc