PC 9 Lower Receiver assembly

[halfmoonclip]

Classic case of a 5 minute job gone straight to hell. I removed the tang sight from my PC9, only to discover that one of the cap screws holding it to the recoil block was broken off in the block. Long story short, I ended up removing the recoil block from the stock and now cannot reassemble the rifle.
Does anyone have a detailed reassembly guide to the PC9 lower? I removed the hammer pivot pin and am unable to reinsert it.
Whoever designed this thing had a truly perverted sense of humor.
I contacted Ruger, and they are not allowed to offer any explanation about reassembly. :?
Thnx in advance,
Moon

 

[JNewell]

I hate to ask stupid questions, but it is one of the things I seem to do best... Did you download the PC9 owners manual, which has disassembly/reassembly information, from the Ruger website? It may address your needs.

 

[halfmoonclip]

I hate to ask stupid questions, but it is one of the things I seem to do best... Did you download the PC9 owners manual, which has disassembly/reassembly information, from the Ruger website? It may address your needs.

Not a stupid question, but I suggest you pull the manual up and have a look. It shows the parts, has numbers and names, and a vague notion of relative positions. However, they have to be assembled in some particular order,and in some specific relationship. Most of that cannot be deduced from the diagram. The manual does give an explanation of fieldstripping,(and even that is convoluted) but not detail stripping
There is no reason that the innards of a blowback carbine need to be any more complicated than an AR. Even when the thing is assembled correctly, there are things you cannot do, like release the hammer with the upper receiver removed.
It is a classic case of Bill Ruger Sr.'s litigation phobias run utterly rampant.
Anyway, shipping the damn thing back to Ruger is going to be an aggravation, and besides, I'd rather fix it myself.
Moon

 

[halfmoonclip]

Okay, after a couple days thinking and analyzing, I believe I have the thing put back together. Anyone have any safety checks (like the ones for an AR), to make sure all is functioning correctly?
I have racked the bolt, dry fired, and racked the bolt again while holding the trigger to the rear. Hammer stays cocked.
Did the same thing with finger off the trigger; again, hammer stays cocked.
Can you think of anything else? I'll test hop it soon, tho' I still have to get the replacement cap screw (that started all this crap) from Ruger.
Moon
ETA-the purpose of the whole exercise was to epoxy a washer with a 0.145" hole over the entirely-too-ghostly OEM ghost ring. It came out really well; looks factory, and the sight picture is much improved.
M

 

[Nathan Frith]

I have completely disassembled one of my PC4s to clean/check it since it was a police trade-in, and I had no idea as to the maintenance and reliability of it. If you could snap a pic of the trigger group, and the underside of the upper with the bolt and counterweight in place, I could probably verify it was put together right. However, if you can cycle it manually, I am fairly certain you got it together in the right order. The trigger group is so complicated, if one piece is out of place, it will not work, period. Also, I keep a pin (per the user manual) in my cleaning kit to arrest the return spring for the bolt/counterweight assembly when cleaning. Makes the whole process much easier.

 

[halfmoonclip]

Nate, maybe you can answer one question. The spring with two legs and a loop (trigger spring,G02201); it goes around the aluminum trigger spring support (G0300). Do the two legs go against the recoil block (G00703), and the loop end over the tab that sticks out of the back of the trigger group? (I cannot find that part in the diagram...) Further, should the spring be oriented as it is in the diagram, with the legs and loops up toward the top and front of the gun? The two bent ends on the legs are not present in my spring.

Really appreciate the comeback. I was only able to reassemble it by taking it entirely apart and working from the butt end forward. Any notion what, exactly, Ruger was trying to prevent with all that monkey motion?
It also appears that, once you've done it once, it isn't all that bad.
Thanks again,
Moon

 

[halfmoonclip]

Okay, the crap continues. I called Ruger today to see if they had a replacement cap screw to secure the rear sight.
Nope, not a one. It appears to be gunsmith's thread, even finer than National Fine. After ten minutes at the hardware, I resorted to a 6-32 cap screw and corresponding tap. Chased the threads in the recoil plate, and screwed in the replacement cap screws.
So it is fixed and ready for a range run. Seems like a lot of trouble...
Moon

 

[blume357]

I've heard that getting the trigger group back together on one of these is pretty dern close to impossible... seems like I have a picture of the innerds somewhere on line if you need it.

 

[halfmoonclip]

I've heard that getting the trigger group back together on one of these is pretty dern close to impossible... seems like I have a picture of the innerds somewhere on line if you need it.

I'm not sure 'impossible' is the word, but it is complicated, with all sorts of springs and levers I've never seen in anything else. They go together like one of those Chinese puzzles you may have had as a child; find the perfect alignment, and it slips right into place.

Having run some checks, and some reassurance from Nate, I think it is okay. However, blume, if you have some detailed pics of the interior, I wouldn't mind a look. I'm still a little concerned about that trigger spring's position.

Heck of a note; sending it back to Ruger wouldn't even have been a solution, as they don't have most of the parts.
Moon

 

[blume357]

I just went through over 211 photos on my photo bucket account and can't find them.... looks like I need to redo it. I know I had a picture of what you need but I must have private emailed it to the last guy that did this... yes, you are not the first....

Once I figured out how to get the hammer to fly forward, it wasn't too hard... hope this helps:

 

[halfmoonclip]

blume, thank you so much for your trouble. I think I see what is going on. The older trigger springs had bent legs, and I think they went under the recoil block, while the newer ones have straight legs that (I hope) go against the front side of the recoil block.
That is the thing I'm most concerned about; where those two legs go. I don't see a way the newer spring can go underneath the block.
In your picture, I can see the front (looped) end of the spring, on top the trigger's tail.
If you have anything that shows that, or even if you can tell from your gun, it would be a help.
I'm happy to hear that I'm not the first idiot to end in this jackpot! :lol:
Moon