[Techsan]

First time poster here, and I'm hoping someone on this site can help me out. My dad purchased a PT1911 several months ago. Twice now while shooting it, the left side safety has pulled out from the frame, causing the safety lock plunger to fall out. Luckily, we were able to find the plunger both times (the second time he was down on his hands and knees in the grass using a magnet and just got managed to catch it). The safety also falls out when this occurs.

Has anyone else has this problem. I'm ready to send it in to Taurus for him, but if there's a simple solution, I'd much rather try to fix it ourselves. I've heard some negative press about Taurus customer service. Thanks for the help.

 

[Cimarron]

The Taurus ambi-safety is designed off of the Swensen design... used by many producers. In order to provide for the ambi (both sides) the unit is joined in the middle with a "notch and groove" arrangement. What happens is that the joint can loosen... especially if the right ambi safety is pressed with the safety off. The right hand is held in place by the right hand grip. Obviously what is happening is that the safety is loosening enough to allow the left hand safety to work loose... and when it is loose enough it it come out when you are trying to engage the left hand safety.

The easy solution is to periodically check the safety by squeezing the two halves together when the gun is not in use.

You may have loosened the notch and groove until they will always be loose. You can try to fix it by...

1. Using locktite to put some extra "grab" on the two halves... you will have to disassemble the two parts... coat them and then reassemble then and keep some pressure on them (grip clamp) until that set's up.

2. Some people try to squeeze the notch to make a tighter fit, but my end up with a broken notch.

3. You could send it back to Taurus and they will happily replace the part, and since it requires had fitting, it will require your pistol for the requisite weeks/months.

You Can also take the gun to almost any gunsmith to have a right sight safety installed. I did that myself and changed the safety to a very small tactical safety that won't be brushed off by any clothing. You can have the same wide target safety or whatever you wish installed.

You can probably get with your 1911 buddies and they could walk you through installing such a safety yourself... it really isn't that hard, just be very gentle with the file.

Check this out... http://www.taurusarmed.net/forums/index.php?topic=3229.0

 

[Techsan]

Thank you for the info Cimarron. I replaced the safety again today to look it over, and it worked itself out with minimal handling, so I guess the fit has been loosed to a point where I can't trust it to stay in without constantly checking it.

If I send the gun back to Taurus, what exactly would they do to address the problem? The left side safety isn't broken. I assume that even if Taurus somehow could tighten the fit, it could loosen back up over time? I guess the safest bet is to replace the ambi-safety with a left (or right) side safety. Will doing so void the warranty?

 

[Cimarron]

The secret of this type of modification is to just not loose the original parts... if you need to send it in... replace the originals. The finish is only a 1 year warranty, so I have just ignored it.

What would they do if you sent it in? Probably just replace it with a new ambi-safety which would be a tighter fit.

 

[Czechbikr]

Maybe the latest ambi safety problem. Got back from the range sending the 1000+ rounds down my PT1911 SS that I bought in Nov 2008 and when I picked up the frame to clean it, the left side safety fell out with the plunger. Did some research here, thanks to the good folks who supplied the info, and disassembled the right side after removing the grips (a bit surprised when the grip safety fell off, no one talked about that) saw that the spline fitting still appeared intact and tight. Reassembled it with some Loctite and hope to get a few thousand more rounds out of it before having to replace it. Until things settle down with Miami repair, sending it out is out of the question, so I'll either fit the replacment myself or use a local 'smith if/when it becomes necessary. I don't need the right side safety and want to know how one plugs the hole if they change it to a left side only.

 

[Sax .45]

If you replace it with a left side only the shaft of the of the new safety is longer. It will and has to go completly thru to the other side of the frame. There will only be a small bit of it protruding on the right side.

Sax.

 

[Czechbikr]

Thanks Sax

 

[wvdmc]

When my left side safety and plunger assembly fell out, I did not recover the parts. The Taurus CS guy told me that it wasn't a problem, and that I just need to send it in and they will install new parts. But I don't want to be without my baby for weeks or months, so I'm ordered the parts from Wilson Combat and will just install my own new parts. Before my year is up, though, I will need to send it back to them to rectify the gouging to the slide that the safety coming loose caused Oh well.