[mrduke]

I recently got back my p3at after a 9 week wait. It was sent in because of jamming, for the second time, and due to the assembly pin easily coming out. I was happy to have it back, had an expensive box of gold dots waiting. I shoot a few times and it jams, FTF. It was easy to push the slide forward with my thumb, and with all the FTE and problems I've had, I wasn't surprised. It jammed on the first clip after its first trip back from the factory. I am not limpwristing, I have tried many ways of gripping hard. I shoot a .357 snub so its not the problem.

So anyways, shooting after its second trip to KT... the assembly pin pops out and slide falls off. Guide rod vanishes.

I send an email to keltec expressing my frustration.

They reply only to the portion where I discussed the long wait (to lead up to my disappointment about things still not being fixed). I had asked them to just send a guide rod and I'll have it fixed myself at a gunsmith since they did a 2 minute job of replacing some parts on it and supposedly test firing it, which i don't quite believe. They just ignored it basically. Hopefully I get the guide rod, put it back together and somehow fix the assembly pin spring (i did see a post about that on here but that wasn't the only problem so just sent it in).

Then, if it still doesn't work, i'll do what i should have done, get an LCP or taurus.

This gun gets decent reviews, so I know it CAN work. KT just didn't take the time to do mine right. It was purchased 5 years ago, and has constantly been unreliable.

 

[mrduke]

Update and question

Well the problem hasn't been fixed; but back when this happened, kel-tec sent me an email with a printable shipping label. I ended up buying an LCP and had to move, so being very busy I then noticed the shipping label expired. Kel-tec had tried to handle the situation, and I don't hold this very bad P3AT against them, despite its 2 trips to the factory. I know they tried, and replaced some parts. I bought a PF-9 recently and it has worked quite well.

They sent me the missing guide rod and springs which disappeared (the slide fell off with an accidental push of my thumb IIRC, guide rod was launched, found the springs only). Quite funny that this is so unique it stirs disbelief. From the great reviews I hear of the P3AT lately, mine is a unique, anomalous pistol indeed.

So to the point of the post: I re- found this thread while searching in the P3AT forum for "assembly pin spring" and couldn't find any relevant details. What I'd like to do is fix the spring which is for certain one of the problems, as its out of place and for some reason the frame is slightly bulging there (i remember reading here of someone fixing this with a hairdryer). I'll have to do a full disassembly and remove the frame pins, but am unsure of how to fix the spring, or whether i need a new one.