P-64 advice!! Please help!

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xjpsmithx
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Joined: July 29th, 2013, 1:56 pm

P-64 advice!! Please help!

Post by xjpsmithx »

Hey guys, I just received my first p-64 today. I purchased it with the intentions of carrying it. It's a 1972 in real nice condition. The internals look almost brand new! The only draw back is that the safety/decocker was ridiculously impossible to operate. I read on a post here to take it apart and deburr and polish. I did that and now I can use it with "almost human" amount of force. My fingeres are red and raw already! Is there a way to make this safety/decocker smooth or will I have to carry condition 3?
Transport
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Re: P-64 advice!! Please help!

Post by Transport »

Ahoy!

Did you clean up the channel the spring fits into? I did the same to mine and ran a very small cleaning bush into that channel the spring/tip fit into. I also followed the recommendations and trimmed a very small amount of the spring back. Those changes made a big difference! You might add just a tiny drop of oil on to the safety/decocker lever and just work it a little. My P64 looks like it was never used much at all. Good luck!

Transport out
xjpsmithx
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Re: P-64 advice!! Please help!

Post by xjpsmithx »

Yeah I. Cleaned and scrubbed every part that I could touch and it did help a little. Before I had to take the plastic backside of a screwdriver to decock the gun, now I just have to strain and bruise my finger! Lol I did read that cutting the detent spring helps. 2 questions: How common is that spring to find if I mess it up? 2: how many coils to I cut off? Thanks again!
Transport
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Re: P-64 advice!! Please help!

Post by Transport »

Ahoy!

On the forum it is recommended to cut off a couple coils. Remember you can always cut more off, but can't put it back on. Cut a little at a time until you get satisfactory results. Replacement springs can be found on Gunbroker.

Transport out
wlockridge
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Re: P-64 advice!! Please help!

Post by wlockridge »

xjpsmithx My P 64 was most new as well when purchased. I've read and studied all of the various fixes on here and I would advise you against cutting the springs, and anything other than a light polishing of the associated parts. After it's been thoroughly cleaned place a drop or two of Lucas assembly lube, available at most parts stores, on the safety cam and it doesn't hurt to place a drop or two on the rails either. The product contains zink and moly among other things and produces a very slick surface. I would do this for the next few time you clean it. Also, because it seems to be in like new condition it means it's probably not been shot much and a couple hundred round through it should help too. It's my opinion that the safety was designed to be stiff for, well safety reasons. It's extremely hard to operate with your fingers but if, while maintaining a firm grip with your right hand, you use the inside of the knuckle of your right thumb and push in and up at the same time I think you'll find it much easier to operate. Reverse the procedure to reset it to safe mode. Having ground too much off the cam and such can result in the safety dropping back into safe mode when you fire it. Not a good thing. Secondly, if you learn the "secret" of using your thumb to activate the safety, which is near impossible to do with your fingers, and God forbid you find yourself in a struggle for the weapon and lose it, the problem of someone unfamiliar with the weapon and how it works trying to take it off safety, might just slow them down enough for you to at least retreat to cover. Try this method before you do anymore cutting or grinding as parts are damn hard to come by. Good luck.
Shoot first, Shoot straight, and hit what you're aiming at, if you can do these things and have six rounds of ammo, you'll have two thirds more than you need to prevail.
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Weasel640
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Re: P-64 advice!! Please help!

Post by Weasel640 »

Replacement springs can be found here for about $3.
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewIt ... =354463277

If you are going to cut, order the replacement first, that way you'll have it on the way.
Weasel

When you vote, you are exercising political authority, you're using force. And force my friends is violence.
jemsj4
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Re: P-64 advice!! Please help!

Post by jemsj4 »

What I did was SLIGHTLY round the safety detent. Before that, I could not take it off safety, but was able to put it on. Here's where I read about it.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4365
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Curly1
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Re: P-64 advice!! Please help!

Post by Curly1 »

Welcome to the forum.

Some good suggestions presented above, let us know how it works out.
Laugh Hard and Often.

Gary
jacklove44
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Joined: August 21st, 2013, 8:01 pm

Re: P-64 advice!! Please help!

Post by jacklove44 »

Hello,
If you haven't gotten the safety issue resolved, you might try what we do here in our gunsmith shop. We restore P-64's and do 10 at a time. After removing the slide, the best way to work on the safety is to push the firing pin as far forward as possible and grab it with a pair of needle nose vise grips. You can lock the firing pin that way in its furthest forward position and remove the safety several times if necessary to work on the release issue. Make sure you place the slide and vise-gripped firing pin in a large (1 gallon) clear plastic bag before you remove the safety as the detent and spring have a nasty tendency to pop out of the detent hole and disappear to the farthest corner of the shop!! By putting the slide in a plastic bag you can capture everything if it does pop out uncontrolled. Once you have the safety removed, use a felt bob on a dremel tool with jewelers rouge and polish the cam and detents, but do not remove any steel, just polish to high luster. Cut two coils off the detent spring, place a SMALL dollop of good gun grease, (Brownell's graphite grease is excellent) in each of the detent recesses on the safety cam. LIGHTLY and I mean LIGHTLY round the detent, squeeze the spring at one end with needle nose pliers and insert the detent into the spring. This will hold them together for re-installation. Use the plastic bag again to make sure you don't lose the detent and spring if it should slip during re-assembly and re-install the detent and the safety and gently release the Vise-Grips from the firing pin to ease it back in place. If you just let it fly, chances are you will break it at the rear end and firing pins are very difficult to come by. Once you have it reassembled, work the safety numerous times with a pair of needle nose vise grips. Pad the jaws with a small strip of thin leather so as not to mar the safety. You will notice an immediate improvement. If it is still way too stiff, repeat the above procedure and cut one more coil off the spring. We have not had a safety that this procedure did not give a significant improvement to the problem.
While you have the gun apart, you might as well install a new Wolff 17lb hammer spring and 22lb recoil spring. You can order them on-line directly from Wolff.
Hope this helps you.
Jack
Jack's Guns
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