Bent part and reliability?

[Stevie]

I've thought I had my 1920 DWM "fixed" a couple of times. This pistol has experienced malfunctions from day 1, followed by periods of good reliability. I replaced the mainspring with a 36# spring and had the gun working great, or so I thought. The poor old P08 started acting up again. I just installed a 38# spring and swapped magazines with my other pistol. This seemed to have helped slightly. I took both my 9mm P08's out and shot them today. My 42 Mauser ate shells from all 5 of my mags,no problems( I've only seen this gun jam once, when my daughter limpwristed it and it stovepiped an empty). The DWM would only fire reliably with one of my Mec-Gar mags ( that I had installed an xtrapower spring in). It would not lock back when empty with any mag, and jammed frequently.

I've just finished cleaning and examining both guns. Preformed feed checks with dummy rounds(both passed,feed fine manualy), and may have found the problem. With the guns unloaded but cocked and on safe, I can pull pull back slightly on the Mauser toggle and it stays put, backed of the breech about a quarter inch and toggle up in the air. Do this to the DWM and the toggle just snaps shut(I've noticed this before). I pulled the cannons off and checked out the inside, everthing appears fine, but on closer inspection the connecting link from the toggle to the mainspring lever on the DWM has appearently bent itself somewhat straighter than the one in the Mauser. Has anyone else experienced this type of problem? I don't suppose it's a difference in manufacture?

Thanx, Stevie.

[John Sabato]

Stevie,

My byf 41 exhibits the same behavior about the toggle being able to be pulled back and up until and remains there, but does not exhibit the jamming that yours does.

In those cases where the toggle can be pulled back in this manner and it remains up, I have determined long ago that this is the point where the sear notches engage and the slight resistance difference between the recoild mainspring and the firing pin spring are what cause the toggle to remain up/back.

I would not consider this to be a cause of your jamming... but would believe it to be as a result of the magazines that you own and their compatibility with the your frame...

Find the mag that WORKS and use it exclusively in that Luger... once you have the functioning cured with the right magazine... then you can play with fitting another aftermarket magazine until it also functions... it is all a matter of feed lips AND smoothness of follower operation AND magazine spring smoothness and strength AND the appropriate position for the man button catch to hold THAT particular magazine... AND smoothness of all the moving parts in the gun, AND various spring strengths, AND proper lubrication....

Fix all those variables in the appropriate way and you won't have any more jamming