Walther PPK - safety tripping on while shooting

[druryj]

I have had a number of PPK and PPK/S pistols over time, and a common problem with a lot of them is that sometimes, the safety will drop down to SAFE, on its own, while you are shooting. This is only mildly annoying at the range, but when you are involved in a high speed car chase and gun battle with a gang of ruthless commie spies, it could be deadly. See, despite the Walther hitting like a brick thrown through a plate glass window, it also was notably one of the first, if not THE first successful DA/SA Pistols. What? You ask incredulously. "Indeed". I would answer. Old Carl and Fritz didn't have a lot to copy back in 1929. They just thought this stuff up. (Actually, the first DA/SA pistol ever manufactured is generally considered to be the Little Tom, a .32 ACP top-loading pistol designed and made in Austria. The Little Tom did not see much success though while the Walthers did). Now, maybe because they were braving a new frontier in firearms design, well, the ignorant chumps put the safety in "wrong". Wrong? You would ask. "Yep. Observe".

And there it is, exactly the opposite of the safety on another old design, the 1911. John Moses had it right; Carl and Fritz? Not so much...see, the dang safety on a PP Series gun is held in place by a tiny spring that puts pressure on a tiny plunger that goes into a tiny divot on the safety drum. Here is the deal:

So see that little spring? The plunger on the left goes in a divot on the safety drum, and the plunger on the right pushes against the extractor. So one spring to control two things. That's all fine, except that divot the safety plunger goes into is ultra tiny. See here:

So you understand what I mean that a lot of these PP Pistols will sometimes just drop down in SAFE while being shot?
To be continued ...


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[D. Hargrove]

Awesome demonstration @druryj - See, I learned something new again today!! Thanks man.

 

[surjimmy]

Nice. You are my HERO!

 

[druryj]

Oh thank you, but, I'm not done! See, being the astute dude I am, I figured out that we need to do is see what's up with this and fix it. So, I decided it needed to be detail disassembled...first; we go to www.gunparts.com and find the schematic:

Then we determine which parts we might need to replace. Go back up and look at pic #2 above. See that safety plunger? It sure looks worn and rounded to me. See anything else? So, it's pop quiz time. In order to put sufficient pressure on #2 the extractor, and #36, the Safety Drum, what parts should we order? If you said # 3, 4, and 5 you get a gold star. If you said anything else, you are wrong and should do push-ups until further notice.

 

[druryj]

Nice. You are my HERO!

I know.

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

That's very cool. I mean, not cool your gun gives you trouble, but a fine illustration of the problem.

 

[druryj]

So, the parts get here and we lay 'em out on the table to look at: Old parts on top, new parts below.

HOLE E. CHIT! Look at that! That, my friends, might give us a clue! Now, the Walther PP series of Pistols has about 3,000 parts. And it sure seems like that anyway, when you've got one completely torn apart and spread out all over the kitchen table and a wife who doesn't like that crap in her kitchen on the way home...Quick! Scrape all this crap into a shoe box and hide it!

 

[MacFromOK]

Is the top piece that worn, or is the new piece an improved design?

 

[druryj]

Is the top piece that worn, or is the new piece an improved design?

A bit of both, I do believe. The one on top is really worn and well-rounded; it's sure not getting a good "hold" in the divot. Now, I had the safety drum itself break here a few weeks back, and it ended up I shipped it back to Walther and they replaced the drum. (part #36) and out in a new spring too (#4). At that time, this gun was NOT doing the "Fire" to "Safe"
issue, or they might have replaced the plungers on both ends too. Whatever; so I decided to replace anything and everything that was associated with pressure on that safety drum to keep it in "Fire" when I wanted to be firing. Now, the more smarterers ones of you all may have figured out that increasing pressure on the safety drum is also going to do this: (Pop Quiz time again). POP QUIZ QUESTION: So, what it gonna do? Answer: It will also increase pressure on the extractor. Crap. If that sucker doesn't work right, I got a single shot semi-auto pistol to fight the commie spies with. Let's study the exploded diagram some more. Look at the extractor, part #2. The extractor has a little tittynipple looking thing there on the aft end. It sits in a round hole in the frame. A ROUND hole. So; it can kinda roll up on the cartridge rim and then roll out and yank that sucker outta there! Now, ifn' it was a square peg; we would might have an issue, but since it is round, I don't think we will. So, thrusters on full, let's put some serious pressure on that dang safety drum!

 

[druryj]

It isn't going in.

I am going to have to do this the Marine Corps way. (GABH). - Get a Bigger Hammer.