Recoil Spring Broke

[Ronny]

I have a fairly new M&PC 9mm with about 1,000 rounds through it. After cleaning it the other day, Friday, when I went to put back the recoil spring, it did not catch, but the guide rod poked through the front end.

When I examined it, I noticed that the cap at the small end was cracked.

Smith customer service was great. Said I would have a new one by Tuesday.

Just curious if this has been a problem with the more recent guns.

 

[agksimon]

I have a fairly new M&PC 9mm with about 1,000 rounds through it. After cleaning it the other day, Friday, when I went to put back the recoil spring, it did not catch, but the guide rod poked through the front end.

When I examined it, I noticed that the cap at the small end was cracked.

Smith customer service was great. Said I would have a new one by Tuesday.

Just curious if this has been a problem with the more recent guns.

They must have some in reserve for such emergencies, as I've had one on backorder for a month, as I wanted a spare for the above reason. I'm calling them Monday to see what's going on.

 

[Fastbolt]

Mechanical assemblies can become damaged, broken or inexplicably fail prematurely upon occasion. Not what you'd call often, but it can happen. The nature of such things.

It's also not uncommon for S&W to occasionally reserve some spare parts for dedicated repair use, which might result in sometimes having less of them offered for retail sales from time to time (until the next vendor shipment arrives).

I've had to wait for some "routine" spare parts for orders just building my parts supply, but have been able to get parts needed for repair of a downed weapon more quickly. I find that perfectly reasonable.

 

[mrwintr]

Guide Rod

They must have some in reserve for such emergencies, as I've had one on backorder for a month, as I wanted a spare for the above reason. I'm calling them Monday to see what's going on.

I called them today because my recoild spring has turned to mush in 700 shots.
I was told to send the gun back.....they didn't offer to just replace.
Anyway, does anyone know if that hex end on the guide rod can be unscrewed???

 

[agksimon]

I called them today because my recoild spring has turned to mush in 700 shots.
I was told to send the gun back.....they didn't offer to just replace.
Anyway, does anyone know if that hex end on the guide rod can be unscrewed???

The recoil spring and guide rod come as an assembly.

 

[OKFC05]

Anyway, does anyone know if that hex end on the guide rod can be unscrewed???

Yes, I just put a 15# ISMI flat wound spring on a stock M&P Pro guide rod. ISMI springs are sold by Brownells.
ISMI : S&W M&P CERTIFIED SPRING - World's Largest Supplier of Firearm Accessories, Gun Parts and Gunsmithing Tools - BROWNELLS

 

[turbo38gn]

First I've heard of any kind of spring breakage. I own 4 M&P's, thousands of round, not a problem anywhere.. other than finding more time to shoot. Not sure about the turning to mush spring? Did the gun give you problems when you noticed the "mushy" feel?

 

[mrwintr]

First I've heard of any kind of spring breakage. I own 4 M&P's, thousands of round, not a problem anywhere.. other than finding more time to shoot. Not sure about the turning to mush spring? Did the gun give you problems when you noticed the "mushy" feel?

I haven't had any failures because of the weakening spring, yet....But when I was talking to the S&W tech, he said it didn't sound right that it would have lost any noticable tension in approx. 700 rounds. I explained to him that I had fired more 124gr and 147gr than 115 and he didn't think that that would matter..? But what really made me start to notice the weakening of the spring was that when you hold the slide back about an 1/8" it barely goes back to battery, original it had good resistance when you went to pull the slide back and it went back with authority, now I could almost blow on it hard enough to move it back. I was going to put a new 17# spring I had from a Glock 17 I had owned in it, but I haven't been able to unscrew the hex shaped end plug on the guide rod, I even compressed the spring out of the way and gave the end of the rod a decent amoung of heat to loosen any Loctite they may have used.....one reply above said they had taken theirs apart and changed their spring, but they didn't mention what it took to unscrew that end....I don't want to break it off until I have another to replace it with and the originals seem to be out of stock in the places I looked. I'm not really thrilled with the aftermarket, non-captured wolff spring setup, so I will be trying out a stock Glock 17 captured recoil spring assembly today and see how that functions. I did a search online and found several people had used the Glock 17 recoil spring with excellent results...?? I will have to see myself.
I do like the fact that this gun has eaten everything I have thrown at it with zero hiccups, except for a few Dead trigger incidents, it has functioned flawlessly.

 

[OKFC05]

but they didn't mention what it took to unscrew that end....

Wasn't that hard. Put the big end in copper jaws on vise, pushed spring down with my fingers, and unscrewed the hex bolt with a 1/4" drive ratchet and socket. Did not heat.

Put the new spring on, pushed it down with my fingers, put bolt most of way in with my fingers, tightened with ratchet and socket. Done!

Put in gun and test fired. Complaint had been new gun sometimes not locking back when held loosely (female family member; I'm not a gunsmith). I'm used to changing springs in competition guns to match ammo power factor. I'm a fan of ISMI springs.
Gun now locks back when held barely enough to keep from dropping it.

 

[mrwintr]

Wasn't that hard. Put the big end in copper jaws on vise, pushed spring down with my fingers, and unscrewed the hex bolt with a 1/4" drive ratchet and socket. Did not heat.

Put the new spring on, pushed it down with my fingers, put bolt most of way in with my fingers, tightened with ratchet and socket. Done!

Put in gun and test fired. Complaint had been new gun sometimes not locking back when held loosely (female family member; I'm not a gunsmith). I'm used to changing springs in competition guns to match ammo power factor. I'm a fan of ISMI springs.
Gun now locks back when held barely enough to keep from dropping it.

That sounded easy enough, I wish mine wasn't quite so tight, still scared it will snap off instead of unscrewing.
Thanks for the reply!