[s91gen]

Hey all i am new to the forums here . My dad has a s9 that he owned for 20 years that recently started giving some issues that we noticed only a couple days ago .. it never missed a beat until now ..
The issue is that it fails to cycle sometimes and when this happens whether dry firing or not the slide gets jammed the trigger feels locked or it acts as though it was not reset and the safety will not engage which i know is also a sign of a faulty trigger reset ..

The funny part is this. we will cycle it ensure everything is ready to go , rack moves freely etc . engage safety . put the gun down . and then when we check it again as if we are about to use it , disengage safety etc. it acts as though it wasnt cycled properly .. i am 100 % sure it would fire before we set it down or rotate the gun to a holster position .
even after we just disengaged the safety in this condition it will not engage the safety again as if the trigger was pulled and it needs to be cycled .

In this condition the slide is jammed shut and feels as though something is jamming it up from the back , we can even see the back of the slide raise up like something is pushing up on it .

The only way to free it is to put the nose to the ground or the end of a table and press down till it moves and then it will free up again and then it will work normally until next time ..

Visual inspection from a field strip showed everything to be normal.

we dont have any steyr specialists where we are from and shipping it out to steyr will be hard due to my countries laws so any help will be greatly appreciated .

My next course of action will be to disassemble the slide and the sub frame and look for anything strange.

 

[silentheart]

1 welcome to steyr family
2 I agree with your thinking, detail strip and clean. You will be surprised on modern steyr pistol is fairly easy to do so.
3 YouTube is your friend on strip and reassemble.

 

[s91gen]

OK guys. so an update. Today i dug a bit deeper and i striped the sub frame out and the slide . this procedure was never done since the gun was new (20 yrs or so) so there was a good bit of stuff in there .
i cleaned and lubed it as best as i could and i did an inspection of all the parts. one thing i found was two pins #14 and #15 was sticking out a bit and was touching the trigger bar . i think this may have been causing one of the issues . the gun did have a recent bad fall so i think this may have caused the pins to shift . i forgot to mention that it was only after this fall we noticed these issues . i set the pins back in to there correct place and i noticed nothing else was really out of place or broken.
i did notice some corrosion on the rack ? i dont know if thats the correct name for it but basically the track the slide will go into . there was significant pitting on the back portion of the rack on both sides i cleaned this up as best as i could even sanded it a bit to see how best i can remedy it . another thing i noticed . the two tabs that goes into the back of the frame to lock it in place on one side the tab is corroded very badly it still seems to fit in the frame good still though.

so after this i reassembled and i did some dry firing and the main issue which is the gun randomly acting like the trigger needs resetting after it was clearly reset and ready seems to be gone . i cycled it almost 50 times and the trigger worked every time . so i assume here the issue was those two pins sticking out too far.
but here is where i noticed the problem has two parts to it .. Now whilst dry cycling when the gun is cocked and ready the slide wont rack freely until the trigger is pressed . during the cycling process when the gun is cocked i noticed the slide is actually being pushed up slightly and when this movement happens the slide gets really stiff. only after pulling the trigger the slide will physically move down towards the frame a bit and then it will slide freely like normal . i am not sure if this movement is normal but i know the slide was never this hard when loaded with a round before .
I think it may be the corrosion / pitting i noticed but i am not 100% sure .
i did try sanding / polishing a bit more and i noticed no change.

i disassembled the slide gave it a clean everything was normal in there .

we are going to the range tomorrow to test it out to see how it behaves .
before the trigger will randomly go dead . sometimes on the 2nd round .
then randomly after that . and only a reset with a really stiff slide would get it going again .
now i think we have the dead trigger issue sorted .
i will try to get some pics for reference ..
we believe the pitting / corrosion was from it being appendix carried and some sweat getting in there over time in between cleanings and slowly damaging the surfaces .

now the only issue i have is a really stiff slide once cocked . whether its loaded or not doesn't change this.

Thanks guys

 

[silentheart]

please keep posting and let us know how it shoot.
Regarding the pitting, I would just use tooth brush and apply grease over it and prevent future rust.
On the rough racking when gun is cocked, I would take striker out, just use clp and tooth brush and clean it up and wipe clean. Then use gun scrubber or NON-Chlorinated brake cleaner to clean the striker channel. Reassemble the slide. See if that works.
If no improvement, I am guessing the sear is not dropping due to some obstruction. I would take all the parts off the chassis, clean it with tooth brush and grease. Wipe clean and reassemble.
Good luck.

 

[s91gen]

but what about the movement i see on the slide when its cocked vs when the trigger is pulled . the slide drops down towards the frame about 1/8th of a inch when the trigger is pulled and only then the slide is free so whatever is causing it to have a stiff rack i believe has something to do with that .. unless this movement or play is normal ?

 

[MrApathy]

You dont want to sand it. too much slide play will cause striker and sear to mismatch.

probably needs a new spring for the guide rod. I dont know if BigTaco is still around or who might have one main spring.
other springs may need to be replaced. Over 20 years any idea how many rounds have been through it? Steyr and armorers were instructed to replace the spring every so x000 rounds forget the number. I dont recall what I did with my steyrs. If you do sand use something that will take undetectable amount per pass. steel whool is all I would use then I would use hoppes #9 to clean all the iron that can corrode out and lube it.

 

[s91gen]

Thanks alot for the advice . to be clear the play i am referring to is not the usual front to back play a weak guide rod will give i think .. or like the battery issues people were having . its a up and down play on the slide vs frame that i notice when the gun is cocked vs when its not . i cannot replicate this with my hands whilst it is not cocked i tried . something is physically pushing the slide up to the back of the gun whilst its cocked and this makes the slide stiff .

we havent gone to the range yet to verify if the trigger issue is there still but after we do that i will try to investigate slide issue a bit further .

at some point we may have to send it out to steyr for a rebuild / refresh

we never really checked how many rounds went thru it but its possible around 2-3000 rounds mostly +p ammunition .
and within the last couple years it was barely used .

i will get some pictures of the way the slide raises up when cocked vs when its not to show you guys .

 

[s91gen]

Videos

side view 1 and 2 - Create and share your videos with Clipchamp

Watch videos made with Clipchamp, the best video maker for everyone.

clipchamp.com

frame - Create and share your videos with Clipchamp

Watch videos made with Clipchamp, the best video maker for everyone.

clipchamp.com

rear view trigger pull - Create and share your videos with Clipchamp

Watch videos made with Clipchamp, the best video maker for everyone.

clipchamp.com

 

[s91gen]

Videos

side view 1 and 2 - Create and share your videos with Clipchamp

Watch videos made with Clipchamp, the best video maker for everyone.

clipchamp.com

frame - Create and share your videos with Clipchamp

Watch videos made with Clipchamp, the best video maker for everyone.

clipchamp.com

rear view trigger pull - Create and share your videos with Clipchamp

Watch videos made with Clipchamp, the best video maker for everyone.

clipchamp.com

here you can see the slide physically go down when the trigger is pulled . only when it is up like that the slide is stiff ...
after the trigger pull the slide movement is normal . my best guess is its hard to move due to the pitting.. unless its some sort of sear engagement issue or firing pin issue ...

just for reference its a 1st gen s9 early serial #0200xx

 

[s91gen]

no thoughts anyone ?

 

[silentheart]

no thoughts anyone ?

I checked both of my m9a1 and m40a1, there is “almost” no movement in the slide while I pull the trigger nor during trigger break. However, for my Glock, I do see the same movement. Can you check by pressing on the slide from the top (near the sight). Is there a movement? I am wondering if the internal is not sit far down enough?

 

[s91gen]

The funny thing is I cannot get it to go back down whilst it's cocked.. and when I do pull the trigger and it sits back down it will barely move up .. I will have to check the internals again to see if anything is out of place ... it seems to me like the sear is pushing up really hard on the firing pin ..