Glock 17M slide lock

[psalms144.1]

Slide lock, slide stop, firing ping safety...same spring.

I really do hope that the spontaneously disassembling pistols were, in fact, due to the slide lock being inserted backwards (I've done it myself once or twice when rebuilding a couple dozen Glocks at a time - attention to detail is everything!). What I'm concerned most about is that "one size fits all" spring isn't stout enough to do the job that the old dog leg leaf spring did, WRT keeping the slide lock where it belongs. Time will tell...

[JHC]

GJM is talking about the slide lock and you're talking about the slide stop lever. Two different parts.

Thanks,
I was trying to speak of the coil spring that in a G43 (which I've heard the 17M copies) secures the slide lock. I've got to take another look at it.

[GJM]

If possible, I hope this thread keeps a technical focus on the slide lock issue (or whatever the M problem turns out to be.)

[Wayne Dobbs]

I wonder why they changed the slide lock from a long tested leaf spring to that coil unit? I haven't tried to remove the new slide lock from the coil spring, but I bet it's a bit of a challenge.

[psalms144.1]

I wonder why they changed the slide lock from a long tested leaf spring to that coil unit? I haven't tried to remove the new slide lock from the coil spring, but I bet it's a bit of a challenge.

I don't know why GLOCK would insist that a single recoil spring would be appropriate for 9mm, .40, and .357 Sig, but, for decades, that was their position. I think this is just more of the same, no doubt developed to minimize the number of different parts required to put pistols together. I'd also ASS-U-ME that a small "hole" in the frame for a coil spring is easier to mold than one for a long leaf spring, but that's a COMPLETE guess on my part.

[joshs]

I wonder why they changed the slide lock from a long tested leaf spring to that coil unit? I haven't tried to remove the new slide lock from the coil spring, but I bet it's a bit of a challenge.

I thought that the move to a coil spring was a potential improvement because the leaf spring is one of the parts that I've seen fail on multiple occasions that potentially deadlines the gun.

[JAD]

Leaf (cantilever) springs are generally inferior to coil springs in terms of fatigue and consistency of force. A well designed coil spring will do a million cycles with the force on the millionth cycle about the same as the force on the second cycle.

Recoil springs, incidentally, are never well designed -- way too much force per length to survive, and they're compressed too far. That's why they change length and force over cycles.

Coil springs are also a non-tooled part, making them cheaper at certain volumes; cantilever springs need to be stamped, which needs a tool.

[JAD]

That is the Glockest thing I've seen Glock do yet.

Kind of. It's awfully pokayoke , and that's not really their wheelhouse.

[ST911]

I wonder why they changed the slide lock from a long tested leaf spring to that coil unit? I haven't tried to remove the new slide lock from the coil spring, but I bet it's a bit of a challenge.

It's actually pretty easy.

[Tamara]

Kind of. It's awfully pokayoke , and that's not really their wheelhouse.

I was more referring to the reduced number of parts SKUs.