The Unofficial P64 Resource Forum

My first PA-63. Size, look, feel, really a great gun however after I fire the hammer won't stay cocked for SA fire. After 150+ rounds and a great cleaning, two differnt ammos, still having problems. Any ideas?

Sounds like lousy sear engagement with the hammer. I fitted a hammer to my dad's 1911. It would do the same thing. I had to do a little filing to the hammer where the sear fit to shorten the travel when the slide cocked the hammer. The sear would be able to engage and leave the hammer cocked and ready when the slide locked into battery. Check your engagement and associated parts.

If you manually pull the slide back and let it go, does the hammer stay cocked?

No problems when the slide is manually pulled back. It actually works a quarter of the time when fired. The hammer will always stay back when manually pulled or pulling the slide. Thanks for the response.

Do you have any cycling problems like the slide isn't coming back far enough? Try experimenting with the slide. Push down on it while pulling back and let it forward slowly. It should cause the hammer to stay cocked. Now, pull up on the slide and pull back and let it forward while still pulling up on the slide. See if that causes any issues with the hammer staying cocked back. Even a small difference, thousandths of an inch, can cause weird malfunctions like this. Something to try.

I'm not familiar with the PA-63 pistols. This was how I figured out that the hammer needed some work on my dad's 1911 by doing what I told you to do above. Pushing down on the slide while pulling it back allowed the hammer to stay cocked. However, if I lifted the slide and pulled it back, it would not allow the hammer to remain cocked since it didn't rotate enough for the sear to engage properly.

I will try it tonight along with inspecting the sear engagement. Thanks and I will report back with results.

No luck experimenting with the slide. I'm not sure how slow you were refering, allowing the slide to come forward. I tried letting is forward as slow as I could. Everytime the hammer stayed cocked. I finally got around to ordering new Hammer and Recoil springs. I am hoping with a lighter recoil spring the slide will come back further and keep the hammer cocked. Do you think that will help? I inspected the sear and from my untrained eye it looked o.k. After changing the springs I will further investigate.

What I meant to say was light hammer spring/ heavier recoil/ or keep same recoil.

You can give that a shot with the springs. That's a bummer that something obvious wouldn't just show itself. I'd keep the original recoil spring and try a lighter hammer spring. As far as how slow, I just mean pretty slow. It really doesn't matter. Once the slide is forward past the point of the hammer touching the bottom of the slide, then you can just let the slide go. You're just controlling the slide at the point it touches the hammer. Either way, sounds like you did it right, so it doesn't matter. It was no success.

Check my last post on this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2945

Summary:

Check for worn sear pivot pins. Put the tighter fitting pivot pin in the right side.

If you can take the gun all the way apart, replace the FP safety plunger spring with a stronger one (you can use the spring out of a Bic lighter.)

Excellent help, Thanks