p-83 double action problem

frisbee2421 · Post by **frisbee2421** » May 17th, 2010, 5:01 am

hi folks, new to the forum and first thread. i picked up a polish p-83 from jgsales a few months ago. very nice shooting weapon. took it out of the safe last night and realized that i no longer have a double action on it. it will fire on single action only. the trigger will not engage on double action at all. to me it looks like there is a spring missing on a pivot piece that runs vertically up the middle of the lower portion of the hammer. any thoughts or experiences on this. should i contact jg sales. it has only been fired once. thanks for any input. frisbee

frisbee2421 · Post by **frisbee2421** » May 17th, 2010, 8:35 pm

if possible can some of you other p-83 owners take pictures of the pivot piece on the lower portion of the hammer. or look and see if their is a spring underneath this piece. also, there is a hole to the left of the firing pin in the slide. can you advise if this hole is present on your pistols. i will try to upload pics of my pistol. starting to get very disappointed that i bought this gun. thanks again.

juniustaylor · Post by **juniustaylor** » May 17th, 2010, 9:05 pm

The hole on the side of the slide (to the left of the firing pin) is the loaded chamber indicator. When a round is in the chamber, the extractor pushes against a little mechanism and a pin sticks out the side. As for the spring and such on the hammer part, I can't say. I haven't really looked a P-83 over extensively. Email me your email address and I'll send you a copy of the Polish manual for the P-83. I have had Google help me translate most all of it. There is a parts breakdown and it may help a bit if you're interested.

jrc · Post by **jrc** » June 15th, 2010, 6:26 pm

I think I know what happened to Frisbee's P83. I just picked one up and the same thing happened to mine. It quit working in D/A.
I discovered that when I removed the grips to clean the weapon, a small spring under the right hand grip became dislodged. The pistol would work in S/A only. I got the D/A to work by putting the hooked end of the spring under the trigger bar and the other end against the frame. This puts tension on the trigger bar and the pistol now seems to function properly in S/A, D/A and decocking. I won't know for sure until I get it to the range.
The spring in question can be seen on Gunbroker under the P83 parts for sale. It is part #20.
I would appreciate any feedback from someone with more knowledge on the workings of this pistol.

frisbee2421 · Post by **frisbee2421** » August 5th, 2010, 3:03 pm

can you take a picture of this spring and where it is so i can see if mine is missing? thanks, this is good to know. i was a bit pissed because i really like the pistol. hell, i like it in single action only as well.

frisbee2421 · Post by **frisbee2421** » October 27th, 2012, 12:43 am

i believe that i have finally figured out what caused my double action failure. the part is called a hammer fly, it is pinned to the hammer. basically it is a double action sear. there is also a spring that is associated with this part. my hammer fly appears to have broken in half and the spring is gone. not sure what caused it. previous corrosive ammo usage by the poles? poor quality metallurgy? just don't know. i had suspected that it was this part. finally located the part and compared it to mine. ordered it today. i will post when and if i am able to fix it.

Curly1 · Post by **Curly1** » October 27th, 2012, 10:38 am

Post pics if you can you get it fixed.

frisbee2421 · Post by **frisbee2421** » October 27th, 2012, 12:36 pm

i strongly suspect that the poles have been using up old stock of corrosive ammo. this weapon is not expensive to make and i figure that they just issue new ones on a regular basis. upon examining the internals of my pistol, i have observed the carbon, charcoal grittiness on the parts. not the usual carbon fouling that i am accustomed to. anyone else see the same thing that i am seeing in their own P83's?

frisbee2421 · Post by **frisbee2421** » October 27th, 2012, 12:38 pm

i know that they went to 9x19 chambered pistols, i am referring back prior the caliber switch, 1990's

frisbee2421 · Post by **frisbee2421** » November 27th, 2012, 4:53 pm

an update, still having trouble removing the pin that retains the hammerfly. i have tried an arbor press, resulting in a bent bit, and a 1/16th punch which also bent. purchased a starrett punch based on their reputation for quality however, i am not optimistic. i think that this might whip me.

Weasel640 · Post by **Weasel640** » November 27th, 2012, 8:38 pm

frisbee2421 wrote:an update, still having trouble removing the pin that retains the hammerfly. i have tried an arbor press, resulting in a bent bit, and a 1/16th punch which also bent. purchased a starrett punch based on their reputation for quality however, i am not optimistic. i think that this might whip me.

OK, See this is the first time I've seen this thread and you got me wondering. So I took out my hammer and snapped a couple pics for people to see what you are talking about. I believe the technical translation for these parts are the "30) hammer ratchet 32) hammer ratchet pin 33) hammer ratchet spring" in the police manual.

On mine it looks like on both sides the metal of the hammer has been punched twice around the pin. Thus securing it in place. It reminds me very much of how the pins on a bike chain are punched. However using a bike chain tool you can get the pins out. Might be a long shot but have you tried to see if it would fit it a chain tool?

I also posted the dilemma over here for you. It got some suggestions already too.

Weasel640 · Post by **Weasel640** » November 27th, 2012, 8:49 pm

jrc wrote:I think I know what happened to Frisbee's P83. I just picked one up and the same thing happened to mine. It quit working in D/A.
I discovered that when I removed the grips to clean the weapon, a small spring under the right hand grip became dislodged. The pistol would work in S/A only. I got the D/A to work by putting the hooked end of the spring under the trigger bar and the other end against the frame. This puts tension on the trigger bar and the pistol now seems to function properly in S/A, D/A and decocking. I won't know for sure until I get it to the range.
The spring in question can be seen on Gunbroker under the P83 parts for sale. It is part #20.
I would appreciate any feedback from someone with more knowledge on the workings of this pistol.

Also snapped a pic of this too. I this would be the "Trigger Bar Spring". I disabled it to see what would happen. The Trigger (reset) Spring still lifts the Trigger Bar into place most of the time for the DA pulls. But with it in the right place it engages the DA %100 of the pulls.

Weasel640 · Post by **Weasel640** » November 27th, 2012, 9:07 pm

frisbee2421 wrote:also, there is a hole to the left of the firing pin in the slide. can you advise if this hole is present on your pistols.

As juniustaylor mentioned that is where the Loaded Chamber Indicator should have been #18 in the manual.

When I got mine from J&G that was missing as well. Luckily I spotted it and had them send me one. You haven't already you should get them to send you one. If they won't, I've seen the part on gunbroker for $20.

frisbee2421 · Post by **frisbee2421** » November 29th, 2012, 7:17 pm

thanks weasel640 for your photos and insight. i don't think that my camera is capable of such good photos.

update: my local gunsmith was able to dislodge this pin with a starter punch and remove it for $5. i had soaked the part in kroil already. a good quality starter punch will remove this pin. i expect that there will be more P83 owners that encounter this problem. my gunsmith said that he expects that the poles did not properly heat treat the part which is why it failed. i'm inclined to agree with him.

weasel, can you check to see if the ratchet spring actually is inside the hole of the hammer and how much of the spring actually protrudes from the hammer itself? i am going to have to trim down an ar-15 spring that fits that hole in order to repair this.

i will try and take pics tonight if my camera agrees. thanks again.

Weasel640 · Post by **Weasel640** » November 29th, 2012, 9:38 pm

Good deal. It seemed like a starter punch along with securing the hammer well was the best solution so far. When I had it out I could see the spring in there and how it interacted with the hammer/ratchet but could not see the exact internal placement. From what I could see it looked as though it seats in the hammer and pushes against the ratchet just enough to keep tension on it. I've put it all back together and about to go to bed so not going to re-inspect it tonight....maybe another time.

I wouldn't blame the Poles. It happens. For the most part they have pretty good quality. I'd stay original on the spring looks like you can find them online from $3-10.

I take most of my pics with my phone now a days. With guns and parts the trick is getting the right balance of light vs focus. I'll normally take a few with/out the flash at varying distances and choose the best one. In another post I had to hold a flash light from the side to get the shot I wanted to display the P-83's firing pin.

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