I have a real soft spot for the old Sig P228s (the originals, not the M11A1s). I came across one today and it ended up following me home.
I'm going to get one of these kits to replace the roll pins and the recoil spring at least, is there anything else that should be done as preventative maintenance before I shoot it?
Last edited by Mitch; 11-11-2015 at 02:18 AM.
Just respring the gun with everything in the kit and you should be good.
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Last edited by John Hearne; 11-11-2015 at 09:28 AM.
- It's not the odds, it's the stakes.
- If you aren't dry practicing every week, you're not serious.....
- "Tache-Psyche Effect - a polite way of saying 'You suck.' " - GG
Keep the recoil spring fresh and change the roll pin holding in the breech block every 5k.
Also, it will rust. All of it will rust. Immediately. Some kind of anti-corrosive is your friend. Especially if you carry it on the inside of your waistband.
Nobody is impressed by what you can't do. -THJ
Notice those two long pins with what looks like serrations on them? Those are called the "tiger-tooth pins". I dunno why they are included in that kit instead of a main spring, but I would strongly advise you to NOT attempt to replace the one in your pistol yourself. Its sole function is to give the sear spring something to push against. I have never seen one that needed replacing, even in pistols approaching 100K rounds fired.
Okay, looking closer, I see they are calling those two pins the head pins. Well, folded/stamped slide head block pins are roll pins and do not look like that photo. Again, no need to change those head block pins out UNLESS you pull the head block for whatever reason. Since they don't include FP or FPB springs, I'm a bit perplexed why they are in there (in the kit). If you re-use a set of head block pins, they WILL start "walking" on your eventually. But as long as the pins are left undisturbed, they almost always stay put.
You pull the head block out of the slide to change the firing pin/firing pin block and their respective springs, or to clean/replace the extractor. If the gun is working, no sense in kicking a sleeping dog. But the recoil spring, trigger bar spring, and decocker springs (which aere included in that kit) all should be changed out every 5K rounds.
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Last edited by LSP972; 11-11-2015 at 08:59 PM.
LSP, I had the sear spring pin fall out on a P226 after about 900 rounds. Replacing it was not fun and you're absolutely right that, even though they're included with this kit, don't try to replace the current ones! Just want to echo that in case the OP was tempted.
"Customer is very particular" -- SIG Sauer
Like you said the description says inner and outer roll pins, so I'm hoping what comes in the kit are the roll pins for the slide. If not I'm gonna be a little pissed. Thanks for the advice, though, I won't mess with the tiger tooth stuff.
The kit should have the two rolls pins for the slide. I find the best way to install them is to use use the old outer pin as a slave and install the it just far enough to hold the breach block on one side. Inert the new outer pin on the other side just far enough to hold the breech block, install the inner pin until it's flush with the outer pin and drive them home together.
If your grip screws come with thread locker like the ones in the picture I would clean that off first, and use liquid loctite if needed. The resistance from dried on thread locker can be hard to distinguish from a steel screw cutting new thread in an aluminum frame until it's too late.
The maintenance kits I have received from Top Gun in the past had the roll pins. I like that they are now including the trigger bar spring, which do tend to fatigue while in the past the ones from SIG just had the springs for the slide lock and decocking lever. The only other parts that might be worth looking at is if you change out the hammer spring, there is a plastic block below the hammer that is a suggested maintenance item. There is also a small s-shaped spring that can break if the gun is dry fired when the slide is not there to stop the hammer's forward movement.
Last edited by NEPAKevin; 11-12-2015 at 11:46 AM.
"You can't win a war with choirboys. " Mad Mike Hoare
AKA the hammer rebound spring. That's the part that was failing on the first batch of P220s we got in 1996. Turned out SIG USA was not using some parts from The Fatherland, relying on cheaper US vendors instead, and the hammer rebound spring was one such item. And that marked the start of quality decline with Sig pistols.Originally Posted by NEPAKevin
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Uh… might be a potential problem with that. Nesting the two together- the small one inside the large one, with the splits opposite each other- and driving them in together with a correct size roll pin punch might be a bit better.
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