Profile of the Kimber Custom II, Part 1

Back in 1995, when Kimber first stated its intent to produce match-grade M1911 performance right out of the box, the response from the industry was: "Can’t be done." At the time, the only way match-grade accuracy happened was for a shooter to buy a base gun then turn it over to a gunsmith for upgrading. Usually, this more than doubled the original purchase price. Perhaps there were other reasons for the scoffing. Kimber of Oregon had never made a handgun, and had gone bust in the past.

Doubting insiders figured the company and its new backer would break the bank, meaning their own bank, again. They were so wrong it’s pitiful. Once the promise was fulfilled, Kimber pistols started flying off dealer shelves, and other makers of the M1911 had to play catch-up or get out of the game. Today, the oncedown-and-out rifle company makes more of John Browning’s most classic design than anyone else—worldwide. According to what I’ve heard and read, the man who picked Kimber up out of the dust was Les Edelman.

Edelman was owner of one of America’s largest wholesale gun distributors at the time he did the picking up in 1992. Edelman’s past experience made him familiar with the high-performance M1911 parts of Chip McCormick. (Most of us who’ve done accuracy work on the M1911 know McCormick’s parts as well.) I don’t know how the following deal was done, other than it was done quietly. In the mid 1990s, McCormick was working for a small defense contractor in New York State.

Business being a little grim for small defense contractors at the time, the New Yorkers saw an opportunity to get into sporting firearms and agreed to build 6,000 pistols for Kimber. Eventually, Les Edelman purchased the contractor and moved Kimber headquarters from Oregon to Yonkers, New York, its present address, while McCormick continues to play the key role in manufacturing quality control. There are two methods of basic disassembly.

One involves the use of what Kimber calls the "takedown tool," and comes into play with Com pact models, which don’t have a barrel bushing. The takedown tool is the formal name for a .04-inch-diameter, 2-3/4-inch-long piece of wire with a 3/8-inch, 90-degree bend at one end. As always—or should be—prior to any disassembly of a firearm, the magazine is out, the chamber empty and checked, and you have on your eye protection. Field Stripping The first method applies to Series II Compact models.

They have no barrel bushing because they feature bull barrels. Lock the slide back. Locate the small exposed hole in the recoil-guide rod (see drawing), insert the short end of the tool in the hole, and release the slide stop. With the hammer still cocked, push the slide

forward until the semicircular tab on the back end of the slide stop aligns with the similarly shaped notch in the bottom of the slide. Push out the slide-stop pin from right to left, and move the slide forward off the frame. Tip the barrel link toward the muzzle and pull the barrel out of the slide. The second method is used with the full-size Series II Kimbers. It’s extremely close in procedure to all M1911 pistols. Use a bushing wrench, depress the recoil guide, and rotate the barrel bushing to the right.

Watch out when you clear the plug. It’s under pressure from the recoil spring, and you know how far it can fly if you let it. Retract the slide to align the slidestop/slide-disassembly notches. Push the stop out right to left. Remove the slide forward, keeping your finger off the trigger and the grip safety. (It’s always a bad idea to let the hammer fall on a naked frame.) Push toward the muzzle to compress the recoil-spring assembly, rotate the rear end of it off the barrel, and remove it to the rear.

The barrel comes out the same way it did in method one. To familiarize yourself with the Kimber, at this point I suggest you reassemble the pistol. When mating the slide to the frame, don’t try to align the hole in the link, the disassembly notch, and the top of the slide stop all at once. Align the link first, and insert the slide stop. Rotate it up to align with the disassembly notch and push it in. Before rushing onward into detailed disassembly, it would be a good idea to spend some time in diagnostics.

Needless to say—but I’ll say it anyway—keep all live ammo away from your work area and use dummy rounds to run any tests. Now field strip the pistol again. When you removed the magazine, was the release crisp, sticky, or stubborn? The mag body should drop out easily and be free of dirt, dents, or external fouling. Cycle the slide manually several times on an empty chamber. Did the action feel smooth or did you detect an area where binding was present? Is there too much or no lubrication?

Are the sights seated firmly or are they loose

or bent? Are the chamber and feed ramp free of fouling, dents, roughness, or cracks? Is the barrel free of obstructions? How about the breechface of the slide? Is there a little dirt, a lot of dirt, or any sign of peening? Is the firing-pin hole round, oblong, or burned? Check the extractor. The hook should be clean, unbroken, and not among the missing. Cycle the slide one time with an empty magazine in place. The slide stop should rise to engage the slide and lock it back.

The dogleg on the magazine follower should not override the stop. If it does, the magazine will not drop out freely. Thumb back the hammer and press the trigger. Did the pull feel gritty, mushy, or excessive? Did the hammer fall completely or did it bind? Did it stop at the half-cock notch? Thumb back the hammer again. Press it forward with your finger off the trigger. Did it fall? That’s called "push off," and the sear/hammer surfaces are worn or have been unwisely tampered with.

When the thumb safety is engaged with the slide and the trigger is pulled, the hammer should not fall or creep forward. Again, cock the pistol, this time with the manual (thumb) safety disengaged. Pull the trigger without touching the grip.

The hammer shouldn’t fall Guide Rod Assembly 1 Frame 2 Ejector 3 Ejector Pin 4 Grip Screw Bushing (4) 5 Grip, Right Side 6 Grip, Left Side 7 Grip Screw (4) 8 Plunger Tube 9 Slide Stop Plunger 10 Plunger Spring 11 Thumb Safety Plunger 12 Trigger Assembly 13 Trigger Stop Screw 14 Magazine Catch 15 Magazine Catch Spring 16 Magazine Catch Lock 17 Disconnector 18 Sear 19 Sear Spring 20 Sear Pin Kimber Custom II .45 ACP Semi-Auto Pistol 21 Hammer 22 Hammer Strut 23 Hammer Strut Pin 24 Hammer Pin 25 Mainspring Housing 26 Mainspg Housing Pin Retainer 27 Mainspring 28 Mainspring Cap 29 Mainspring Cap Pin 30 Mainspring Housing Pin 31 Pushrod 32 Grip Safety 33 Thumb Safety 34 Slide Stop 35 Slide 36 Front Sight 37 Rear Sight 38 Rear Sight Screw 39 Firing Pin Block 40 Firing Pin Block Spring 41 Barrel Bushing 42 Extractor 43 Firing Pin Spring 44 Firing Pin 45 Firing Pin Stop 46 Barrel 47 Barrel Link 48 Barrel Link Pin 49 Recoil Spring Guide 50 Head Guide 51 Rod Guide* 52 Recoil Spring* 53 Recoil Spring Plug* 54 Magazine Assembly** 55 Magazine Tube** 56 Magazine Spring** 57 Magazine Follower** 58 Barrel Bushing Wrench *Supplied as an assembly. **Supplied as magazine assembly.

or creep. If it does, there’s a problem with the grip safety. Check the strength of the grip-safety spring by repeating what you just did to see if the hammer still drops. Now check the sear engagement. Lock the slide back. Release it quickly and let it slam forward without depressing the trigger. The hammer must remain cocked. Check for disconnector function. Immediately release and reapply pressure to the trigger. The hammer should drop. Inspect the pistol externally. See any hairline cracks?

Does it look as though it’s been dropped on a hard surface? Has it been well maintained? Any sign of excessive vertical or lateral movement between the slide and frame? On Series II pistols such as the one in this article, check the function of the firing-pin safety. Lock the slide to the rear. Look down on the frame through the ejection port. You’ll see the tip of the firing-pin lock plunger (#31) in a hole to the right of the disconnector nose. Press in the grip safety. The plunger ought to rise.

Close the slide and use a small punch to push the firing pin forward slightly without engaging the grip safety. When you squeeze the grip safety Make no mistake, it is not. while pushing on the rear of the firing pin, the pin should move forward and through its hole in the breechface. Once the precheck is completed, collect the tools you’ll be using for disassembly.

Recommended are 1/16-inch and 3/32-inch hex wrenches, a bench block, a pair of needle-nose pliers, a plastic mallet, a small length of wooden dowel, tweezers, pin punches ranging from 1/16 to 3/32 inch, assorted stones, a small screwdriver, a nylon drift punch, a steel hammer, a few clean shop rags, Q-Tips and pipe cleaners, a cleaning rod, solvent, patches, penetrating oil, and a bronze bore brush. Now field strip the pistol again and let’s get on with it.

Detailed Stripping of the Slide On a Series II Kimber, the firing pin (#44) is under pressure from its spring (#43), and held in the slide by its stop (#45) and lock (#39). Press down on the lock and inward enough on the firing pin to clear the stop. Maintain the clearance with a punch, tilt the punch downward to move the stop up sufficiently to capture a portion of the rear of the firing pin.

With the lock depressed and the block clear, the firing-pin assembly will be released, so be ready to catch it on its way out. (Once in awhile, the stop plate will get stubborn. If you run into this, let up on the firing-pin lock, use the nylon drift to separate the stop from the slide, and depress the lock again.) With the stop plate set safely aside, note the extractor-retaining cut, or slot, that the plate used to butt up against.

Applying a small screwdriver or other tool and great care, insert it under the rear of the extractor (#42). Using the principle of leverage, move the extractor partially out of the retaining cut, grasp it gently with your needle-nose pliers (jaws padded), and pull it free to the rear. Never apply pressure to or force the hook end of the extractor. Only when the extractor is removed can you remove the firing-pin lock components. How?

Loosen the rear sight-retaining screw (#38) and drift the rear sight (#37) left to right until the lock spring (#40) is visible. Continue drifting to clear the sight out of the way, reach in with a pair of tweezers, and lift out the spring. Drift the sight all the way out, then remove the firing-pin lock from the top of the slide. Detailed Disassembly of the Frame Place the slide and its parts aside in a box or on a magnetic parts tray (Brownells).

With a 3/32-inch hex wrench, back out the grip screws (#7) and remove the grips (#5 and 6). If the screws balk, apply a drop of oil to each from inside the magazine well. With your finger off the trigger, cock the hammer. The thumb safety (#33) is removed as with any M1911. Grip it firmly, raise it slowly to about halfway "on," and pull it toward you as you continue to raise it. When the safety fights you, return it to the fully "off" position (down), then slowly raise it as you wiggle and pull it from the frame.

When the stem of the safety clears the plungers (#9 and 11), their spring (#10) will no longer be suppressed. They may celebrate the fact by flying out the plunger tube (#8). Be prepared to prevent this behavior. Ease the hammer down. Don’t let it impact the frame and cause damage. The mainspring-housing pin (#30) is a push pin with a dimple on one

When dirty, they can reduce locking engagement with the upper barrel lugs by as much as 40 percent. Below far It instantly differentiates the Series II from earlier Kimber pistols and other M1911 clones. end. Usually, the dimpled end is on the left. Use a cupped pin punch that fits the dimple, and push the pin out to the right. This allows you to remove the housing (#25) downward.

If the housing doesn’t feel like being removed, apply a couple of drops of oil to its guide rails and drive it off the frame with your wooden dowel. Thereafter, the grip safety (#32) and sear spring (#19) lift out easily. Where the thumb safety used to be, you’ll see the beveled end of the hammer pin (#24). With an undersized punch, push it out right to left, lift the hammer (#21) and hammer strut (#22) free, and push the sear pin (#20) out right to left.

This will release the sear (#18) and disconnector (#17), just as it does in any M1911. But it will also release the firing-pin lock plunger (#31), identified on the schematic parts list as the "pushrod." Fish the three components out of the frame with tweezers. Unless it is seriously fouled, the trigger (#12) can easily be pulled out the back of the grip frame. That leaves the magazine-catch assembly (#14, 15, and 16). The catch is not threaded.

With the magazine out, depress the magazine-release button against the left side of the frame and hold it there. This will expose the hole in the catch lock on the opposite side of the frame. A 1/16-inch hex wrench fits that hole. Insert it and turn the lock 90 degrees counterclockwise to engage the lock with the body of the catch and disengage the assembly.

If the assembly fails to drop out, apply a drop of penetrating oil, wait a couple of minutes, then give the assembly a light rap on its left end with your wooden dowel. Now Clean the Pistol It’s safe to assume the Kimber Series II you’re working with isn’t brand new. And you can’t make a close inspection of it when it’s dirty. What follows, then, isn’t meant to be a primer on cleaning a semi-auto. It’s a primer on cleaning this particular semi-auto. Tackle the frame first.

Special attention should be given to the milled recesses where the trigger bow rides back and forth, the mainspring channel, all recesses at the rear of the action, the magazine well, feed ramp, link area and tunnel forward of the barrel bed, the magazine release, and inside the plunger tube. Have you remembered to protect your work surface with a disposable cloth or solvent-resistant mat? Good. Move on to the slide.

The slide is particularly subject to fouling along its rails, on the breechface, and in its locking lugs. The latter can get so dirty they lessen their engagement with the upper barrel lugs by 30 to 40 percent! A toothbrush dipped in solvent is the way to clean them out. The same toothbrush plus a pipe cleaner are employed on the breechface, frame rails, firing-pin stop slots, firing-pin lock recesses, and all other corners. Use a Q-Tip soaked with solvent to clean the extractor slot.

The firing-pin tunnel is given an initial run-through with the Q-Tip, then followed up with the pipe cleaner and a straightened-out paper clip. That should keep you busy for awhile. Next month, we’ll make a detailed inspection of the components, and I’ll describe reassembly, reassembly tips, and troubleshooting. ■