Keep your Glock parts handy!
I detail-strip my Glock to clean and inspect all parts periodically, just to make sure that the gun that I actually carry and train with is in good working order. That is exactly what I was doing with one of my G43s this past Sunday, and I’m glad that I did.
When I pulled the trigger housing mechanism out of the grip frame, small pieces fell out. They turned out to be the trigger spring that was broken in two pieces and other small parts... (See the photo.)
![Trigger Electric guitar]()
I don’t know when exactly it happened or how long the trigger spring had been broken like this inside the trigger housing. At least I did not notice anything unusual when I took the trigger housing out for cleaning and inspection about a month ago.
Anyhow, the broken trigger spring did not surprise me. Over time I have replaced small parts and springs in this gun a few times as routine maintenance. But the trigger housing was one of the few original parts that came in the gun, through which I have fired about 41K rounds. I have also dry-fired this gun God knows how many times. So, the actual use of the gun cumulatively caused enough “metal fatigue” in the small coil spring to finally break... In other words, the tiny OEM trigger spring in my little Glock had survived 41K rounds of live-fire and many thousands of dry-fire.
One good thing about Glock’s new trigger spring system is that even if the coil spring is broken inside, it can continue to function - sort of, as long as it is kept in place with the strut. As a matter of fact, I did not experience any issue such as trigger reset problem during my last two range sessions I had last week. My Glock 43 kept functioning 100% reliably throughout the last two range sessions with 500 rounds of live-fire drills, during which I suspect the trigger spring finally gave up.
I always keep all small parts (including the trigger housing) for my Glocks handy at home. I also keep in my range bag a “Glock first AID kit” that contains a new RSA, extractor, firing pin assembly, and other small parts and springs, in case if any part breaks on the range. So, my G43 simply received a new OEM trigger housing mechanism in place, and everything looks good as far as I can tell. I will see how the gun will perform on the range with a new OEM trigger housing, though I would not anticipate any issue because I only replaced a broken OEM part with a new OEM part. Simple as that!
Keep your Glock parts handy, my friends!
They are inexpensive and readily available. There is no reason to not have your Glock parts handy. Also, inspect the parts in your Glock periodically for wear and tear, especially if you carry the gun and practice with it regularly. I caught the broken trigger spring in my EDC pistol while cleaning it at home. You may not be as lucky and may discover that your EDC Glock is broken in the critical moment, right before you are killed by a felonious attacker....
When I pulled the trigger housing mechanism out of the grip frame, small pieces fell out. They turned out to be the trigger spring that was broken in two pieces and other small parts... (See the photo.)
I don’t know when exactly it happened or how long the trigger spring had been broken like this inside the trigger housing. At least I did not notice anything unusual when I took the trigger housing out for cleaning and inspection about a month ago.
Anyhow, the broken trigger spring did not surprise me. Over time I have replaced small parts and springs in this gun a few times as routine maintenance. But the trigger housing was one of the few original parts that came in the gun, through which I have fired about 41K rounds. I have also dry-fired this gun God knows how many times. So, the actual use of the gun cumulatively caused enough “metal fatigue” in the small coil spring to finally break... In other words, the tiny OEM trigger spring in my little Glock had survived 41K rounds of live-fire and many thousands of dry-fire.
One good thing about Glock’s new trigger spring system is that even if the coil spring is broken inside, it can continue to function - sort of, as long as it is kept in place with the strut. As a matter of fact, I did not experience any issue such as trigger reset problem during my last two range sessions I had last week. My Glock 43 kept functioning 100% reliably throughout the last two range sessions with 500 rounds of live-fire drills, during which I suspect the trigger spring finally gave up.
I always keep all small parts (including the trigger housing) for my Glocks handy at home. I also keep in my range bag a “Glock first AID kit” that contains a new RSA, extractor, firing pin assembly, and other small parts and springs, in case if any part breaks on the range. So, my G43 simply received a new OEM trigger housing mechanism in place, and everything looks good as far as I can tell. I will see how the gun will perform on the range with a new OEM trigger housing, though I would not anticipate any issue because I only replaced a broken OEM part with a new OEM part. Simple as that!
Keep your Glock parts handy, my friends!
They are inexpensive and readily available. There is no reason to not have your Glock parts handy. Also, inspect the parts in your Glock periodically for wear and tear, especially if you carry the gun and practice with it regularly. I caught the broken trigger spring in my EDC pistol while cleaning it at home. You may not be as lucky and may discover that your EDC Glock is broken in the critical moment, right before you are killed by a felonious attacker....
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Thanks for posting this and providing the excellent-quality photo.
This is the first spring failure of a post-Gen4 type of Trigger Spring that I've heard about. It's not obvious what generated the localized stress in the Trigger Spring subassembly to cause the failure. It sounds like you had at least 50000 trigger cycles before failure, which is several times the typical lifespan of Gen4 and earlier stretched-coil Trigger Springs. Progress!
This is the first spring failure of a post-Gen4 type of Trigger Spring that I've heard about. It's not obvious what generated the localized stress in the Trigger Spring subassembly to cause the failure. It sounds like you had at least 50000 trigger cycles before failure, which is several times the typical lifespan of Gen4 and earlier stretched-coil Trigger Springs. Progress!
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1,299 Posts
Wow that’s a lot of rounds through a 43. Nice to see it kept running even with a broken spring.
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1,722 Posts
I have a Gen 3 17 that broke two trigger springs, one at 90K, the second at 120K. The gun was dry fired daily and heavily too.Thanks for posting this and providing the excellent-quality photo.
This is the first spring failure of a post-Gen4 type of Trigger Spring that I've heard about. It's not obvious what generated the localized stress in the Trigger Spring subassembly to cause the failure. It sounds like you had at least 50000 trigger cycles before failure, which is several times the typical lifespan of Gen4 and earlier stretched-coil Trigger Springs. Progress!
Until the rear rail broke at around 150K, those were the only parts Ive had fail.
Interestingly enough, the gun still "sorta" functioned with those springs broken," if " you held the reset. Let the slide go forward without holding the trigger, and it will give you a dead trigger.
Other than a couple of those trigger springs, and a few RSA's, I dont keep much in the way of spare parts around. With the guns I shoot weekly, I replace the RSA's twice a year.
Nothing seems to break, and if it should, I have spare guns to fill in until I get what I might need.
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13,499 Posts
I just got a lecture on here about how much more reliable this particular spring setup is supposed to be, after posting about the re-design. Gosh, what happened?
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I normally dont keep count, at least with most of my guns, and I kind of doubt most do.
I started using/shooting two of my Glocks in practice, and just did it out of curiosity, and because it was pretty easy to keep track.
I shoot at least a certain number of rounds out of each every week, or every other week, depending on the gun, and its at least a "base" count over time. The guns actually have more rounds through them than that count, as I shoot more than the base amount pretty often, depending on mood, or whatever.
The base count when the rail broke on my 17 was something like 147400, and that was over 9-10 years.
Like I said, I often shoot more, and on top of that, I dry fire those guns every day, and had been doing so over that same 9-10 years. The actual "cycles" of those guns are consderably higher.
I have a feeling, "most" peoples guns will probably outlast them over their lifetimes. I wouldnt get to worried about things going unless youre really working at it.
If youre going to buy anything, RSA's are probably the best money spent. How many of your average shooters actually change them out on any kind of regular basis?
I started using/shooting two of my Glocks in practice, and just did it out of curiosity, and because it was pretty easy to keep track.
I shoot at least a certain number of rounds out of each every week, or every other week, depending on the gun, and its at least a "base" count over time. The guns actually have more rounds through them than that count, as I shoot more than the base amount pretty often, depending on mood, or whatever.
The base count when the rail broke on my 17 was something like 147400, and that was over 9-10 years.
Like I said, I often shoot more, and on top of that, I dry fire those guns every day, and had been doing so over that same 9-10 years. The actual "cycles" of those guns are consderably higher.
I have a feeling, "most" peoples guns will probably outlast them over their lifetimes. I wouldnt get to worried about things going unless youre really working at it.
If youre going to buy anything, RSA's are probably the best money spent. How many of your average shooters actually change them out on any kind of regular basis?
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1,512 Posts
I'm with you, if I kept spare parts for every gun I own I would be up to my butt in spare parts. If one gun goes down at the range, I will, most always have two more to finish out the day. When I get home, the order will be placed for the replacement.
In the mean time, IF it was a carry gun that went down, I surely will have something to fill the void.I don't stock spare parts for my automobile either, and I only have one of them.
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Post-Gen4 (G42 and later) pistols have been sold since 2014...and they ALL have a new-design Trigger Mechanism Housing that includes a new-design coil Trigger Spring subassembly intergral to the TMH. This design compresses a hookless coil Trigger Spring rather than the old design that stretches a hooked coil Trigger Spring. That old design Trigger Spring has ALWAYS been the part that actually BREAKS most often (at a hook) in Gen4 and earlier Glocks. The new design TS compresses and has no hooks to break. It is indeed more reliable.
The post-Gen4 Trigger Bar has a descender at the front of its cruciform that couples to and engages the new Trigger Spring subassembly inside the TMH. The new Trigger Bar has NO attachment point for the hooks of the Trigger Spring because the new Trigger Spring has no hooks and is now all contained inside the TMH.
That's just like saying "I just got a lecture on here about how much more reliable a new car is supposed to be, compared to 1960 models. But my 2010 Ford broke at 500,000 miles. Gosh, what happened?"
The new design is inherently more reliable. The OP's 41,000 reported live-fire trigger actuations plus the indeterminate dry-fire actuations (often EXCEEDING the live-fire number for those who don't mind future slide breech-face fracture) are several times the typical point at which hook failure (usually at the TMH end) may be expected with the old stretched coil TS (reports of higher service life notwithstanding).
Note also that the OP's Trigger Spring's rwo broken pieces remained together and fully functional, captive on the Trigger Spring subassembly's concentric guide rod ("that weird black bar thingy").
ANY failure of the old design TS immediately disables all functions of the TS and causes:
(1) Increase in subsequent trigger pull force by about 2-lbf, AND
(2) Failure of the Trigger to reset forward unless the Trigger is held pulled while the Slide returns forward.
Neither of those effects occurred in the OP's pistol with the improved compressed captive Trigger Spring design.
The mechanical principles and advantages of the new TS design are thus very obvious and simple to understand.
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I have a thing with numbers anyway, but I treat my guns and vehicles the same way. I keep up with the mileage on them and keep records of maintenance and at what mileage "X" part was replaced. That way I have no question when looking back when something was done. With guns it's only the round count and when I changed a part but the same idea. To this point it's only been changing RSA's, and I don't keep spare parts on hand since I have backup guns. It's not for everyone, but I enjoy doing it my way.
41k rounds on a 43 is very impressive from both the gun and the shooter holding up.
41k rounds on a 43 is very impressive from both the gun and the shooter holding up.
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For G42 and G43 (as well as for G43X and G48) at least, the actual “trigger spring” is not available as a separate part but comes preinstalled inside the “trigger housing with ejector.” As such, if you want to replace the “trigger spring” in those models periodically as part of regular maintenance, you must replace the entire “trigger housing with ejector.”
Becaue I have never needed to replace the “trigger housing with ejector” in other models of Glock I own (for which the “trigger spring” is available as a separate part and I use NY spring in them), I kind of neglected replacing it in my G43. That is why the “trigger spring” in my G43 had not been replaced until this happened.
That being said, I’m still impressed that the small coil spring had survived that many rounds and dry-fire. But I think I will start replacing the “trigger housing with ejector” in my G43 periodically - say, every 25K rounds or so.
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