I had a look for a tech help section but didn't see one so I hope it's okay to put this here.
So recently I picked up a shiney new, scratch that, a 3rd hand nicely rubbed down and stained wood mp44.
There seems to be only one issue (well two if you count the loose bolt spring but that is cosmetic and just makes a bit of a rattle) and that is the safety doesn't want to work.
I've opened it up and had a look, the bar inside that slides to engauge the safety moves, and the little metal lever it pushes moves and causes the gun to go on safe when I do it directly.
Soo, the problem is with the actual fire select slider (minus point there, shouldn't the mp44 have a selection lever not a slider?) and how it meets up with that bar inside, or that the bar and lever to activate the safety is too stiff for that connection.
My initial thought is to put something between the outer frame of the gun and the inner part of the fire select slider so it should be deeper inside and make a better connection but it'd be helpful to see what others think, or indeed if anyone who has one has experienced and fixed the same problem.
Thanks,
Ink
the plastic piece on the gearbox is called a selector plate and should be quite free in movement , it has only a tiny spring for the lever inside the gearbox that re sets the trigger on semi called the cut off lever. it should not have any great resistance to moving so only needs a small amount of of the inner part of the switch inserted in it.the only time i've seen them become tight is when the bushes/bearings have been changed and the new ones stick out too much , what metal are the bushes , the standard ones are brass and are soft as cheese so may have been changed for a set of new bushes that protrude more fouling the selector plate and making it tight.
if this is the case there is a number of solutions depending on you'r technical abilities.
1 best solution is to replace the bushes with better quality ones.
2 file down the end of the bush protruding, be careful where the filing's go ,you don't want them inside the gearbox.
3 dremmel out the slot behind the selector plate that gives space for the bushes so that there is more space.
4 try gluing a piece of thin plasticard to the inner part of the switch to give it more interface.
hope that all help's ,i seem to have rambled a bit. did you find the secret grub screw holding the barrel in place yet, one of the mounting screw holes for the plate covering the gearbox has a grub screw way down deep in the hole that secures the barrel and needs loosening to side the barrel forward ,unless you do this you cannot remove the gearbox without breaking something .
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
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Thanks that's a great help.
I didn't take the whole gearbox out, only the outer cover, so thank you for pointing out the screw holding the barrel.
I'll need to opening it up again, it certainly didn't seem like the selector plate or the lever were putting up any real resistance but I'll have a check on the bushings.
The plasticard option does seem like the one I'm most comfortable with but doing it properly if I can would be nice and help me learn more about the internal workings of the gun.