So it took me about 2 1/2 hours total, being that I've never owned a 1911 before, but I managed to replace the mainspring (trigger spring) and recoil spring tonight. I haven't even shot it yet, but racking the slide was exceptionally difficult apparently due to spring over-tension. Thanks to the good people at MidwayUSA and Wilson Combat, I now have a much more workable gun. I knew the recoil spring would not be much of an issue, but the mainspring is a bit more complicated. From what I got from one of the videos I made the common mistake of placing the sear spring under the sear instead of on top of it. I even had to remove the grip safety to see what the hell I was doing wrong, but that helped a great deal. It's always a bit disconcerting to keep removing parts not quite sure that they are all going to go back together without any leftovers.
At any rate I know a whole lot more about 1911's than I did at 6:00.
At any rate I know a whole lot more about 1911's than I did at 6:00.
