Slide won't lift for disassembly

[gman68w]

I've installed the Wolff replacement recoil and hammer springs, haven't had any of the magazine drop issues other people have mentioned, BUT I'm having a tougher time getting the slide off for disassembly, and that happened after installing the XP recoil spring (which doesn't seem to soften up the recoil much to begin with, and the recoil with the original spring wasn't too bad anyway; must be a natural fit with these huge Polish mitts o' mine).

The slide will come off if I hold it all the way back, and use the corner of a door frame to prise it off. I don't have any trouble at all getting it back on. Is it the spring doing something here? Or is there something else catching the lip of the rail?

[Curly1]

Did you grind the end of the spring flat at the chamber end like the original?

[gman68w]

I didn't. Why, is that what's doing it?

[Curly1]

Some peeps have posted that grinding it flat like the stock spring helped.

I never ground mine and didn't have a problem getting it off but getting it on wasn't easy.

Do you have the same problem with the stock spring?

Gloves also help in giving you a better grip.

[gman68w]

It wasn't an issue with the stock spring, no.

Mine's the other way around, as I said.

Gripping isn't too much of an issue, I can pull it back as far as it will go, but I'm wondering if the size of the spring is preventing the slide from going back far enough to come off the rail.

[gemini1]

I had the same issue when I first installed the xtra power Wolff recoil spring. Following the advice of some posters here, I grinded the end of the spring flat (I did both ends) and the re-assembly went smoothly afterwards.
I also didn't see any difference on felt recoil between the new spring and the stock. So right now, I am using the original recoil spring with the 18# hammer spring.

[gman68w]

Out of curiousity, what is it that the rounded spring edge is catching on to make disassembly so difficult?

[Curly1]

It's just letting you compress the slide a little bit more for clearance.

[gman68w]

Is there something I should take note of beyond just flattening the spring ends? Like, should the uncompressed spring be a specific length?

[Curly1]

Yes it wouldn't hurt to measure the Wolf spring against the stock spring.

[snailman153624]

I'm guessing that the spring gets fully compressed when you pull it back that far. Some springs maybe have an extra half coil that stacks up too thick. Grinding it off really just makes the spring shorter.

[Weasel640]

Here is a link to an easy technique to get the spring ground down right. (Half way down page posted by JB7748)
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3447

This has been a problem with the Wolff springs for a while. At some point they said they fixed the problem. Either they have not, or you got old stock from a retailer that still had it on hand. Where did you get the spring from?

[gman68w]

I ordered it direct from Wolff, using the link on the "Fixes" page. Was the hammer spring supposed to be flat as well? Because it wasn't.

[robhic]

I ordered it direct from Wolff, using the link on the "Fixes" page. Was the hammer spring supposed to be flat as well? Because it wasn't.

You shouldn't have that problem with the hammer spring. I just replaced 2 yesterday and I compressed them MUCH further down than they had to go to put the mag release part and paperclip in. The hammer springs are good to go as is.

[gman68w]

Speaking of the mag release, as I said, I haven't had any problems with the mags disconnecting after the last shot, but they do pop out a lot easier when I press the release. So that's a thing.