Kimber Common Problems and Fixes...

[BrianMajors]

OK guys and gals. Here we have a thread to post your problems you've had along with what it took to fix it. This is not here to be a stomping ground for customer service complaints or for general complaining. Technical information relating to these fixes is welcome, along with helpful pictures of breakages, revisions in parts, Etc.

Make sure you keep it to problems encountered with your resulting repair included. We are trying to consolidate some info here so people don't have to search so much and the myriad of these posts don't crop up so many different times.

This thread will be edited from time to time and extraneous information will be deleted. Don't be upset, we are only trying to keep this thread as useful as possible.

Thank you,
Brian Majors

[Westminster]

Gun: Tactical Custom II

Problem: Failure to feed last round in magazine

Details:
With both hollowpoint and ball ammo, I was having a failure to feed on the last round in the magazine, maybe 5% of the time. I tried Kimber magazines, Wilson magazines (7 and 8 round), and Cobra mags. Some mags were worse than others, but all had the problem. The round would enter the chamber, but would fail to completely enter, with the rim of the cartridge just barely inserted under the extractor claw. It looked like the (external) extractor tension might be to high. Either that, or the magazine spring seemed too weak (but after trying tons of new magazines and still having the same problem, I ruled out the magazines). The gun has 3700 rounds through it. I have faithfully changed the recoil spring.

Solution:

I contacted Kimber. They sent a different revision of the extractor. I replaced it and the problem completely disappeared for ball ammo! That's good!

Unfortunately, with JHP (Speer Gold Dot, Remington Golden Saber, and Ferderal HydraShok), the last round still is not feeding consistently. In this case, the cartridge partially enters the chamber, but the round gets stuck with the rim of the cartridge *under* the slide (not touching the breech face). This occurs perhaps once every eight magazines.

I sent it to Kimber. They polished the feedramp and a few other places, but the problem remains. Solution? Load ball ammo as the last round in my magazines.

[RAPTOR2]

Modrator, thanks for the timely thread (for me). I have a new Raptor 2. I am experiencing 3-5 milsoads per box of 50 rounds. Friday my local dealer will replace the mag free of charge for anything I want. I had him break down the pistol before I even used it and he said it looked great.
If the new mag doesn't do it, I will contact Kimber next. Great piece. We will fix this. Scott

[Kimber1911]

About 3 weeks ago I was detail stripping my Stainless Target II which I bought used almost 2 years ago and noticed a small crack on the right side of the hammer. I called Kimber and they said to send it to them. 2 weeks later I received a new hammer and the gun again runs flawlessly, which it has done ever since I bought the gun, eats any ammo I feed it.

[BarryinIN]

Problem
Series II firing pin safety releases late, causing failures to fire.

My TLE II worked fine the first time out when shooting it slowly and deliberately, accuracy testing. The next time, I practiced defensive shooting, and drew from the holster, shot while moving, etc. I had several intances where a round would fail to fire. Each time, the cartridge would show either a very light firing pin strike or none at all.

The Series II firing pin block system was the culprit.
The grip safety had to be absolutely, positively, all the way in for the gun to fire. ANY "slack" caused by my grip would cause failures to fire. As much as I'd like to think I would get an ideal grip on the gun every time I draw, I know that the time I need the gun I probably won't.
I think it should be timed so that if the grip safety releases the trigger, it should release the firing pin safety.


***If you carry a Series II Kimber for defense or law enforcement, check to see if it will go bang with a slightly loosened grip. Your life could depend on it, no kidding.***


The fix
Well, it's A fix.
As far as I know, this is the easiest fix that keeps all safetys intact. I've heard that bypassing the system by installing a Series 70 Colt-type firing pin will work, but that's just not an option for many.

I gave the grip safety more travel.
Remove the grip safety (the mainspring housing pin, mainspring housing, and thumb safety come off first). The grip safety's travel is limited by it contacting the frame internally. As you look at the grip safety, you should see what part of it contacts the frame. I took just a couple of file strokes of material off at that point on the grip safety. You aren't filing on something visible from the outside, and uglying up the gun.
When reassembled, this allowed the grip safety to have enough "overtravel" that it gave me some wiggle room.

It gives the grip safety more travel, but doesn't make it release the firing pin earlier. So it's more of a patch than a fix. But the greater travel allowed for some slack in my grip, and has worked on my gun in the 1700+ rounds since doing it.

As always, YMMV, consult a gunsmith, or surgeon, etc and so on.

[Rjb_213]

Gun: Kimber Elite Carry

Problem: Dim Night Sights

Fix: Called the Custom Shop. Shipped in the slide. Brand new bright night sights back on my pistol in less than a week and it shoots right on. Thanks Kimber!

P.S. Never a FTF or FTE in this pistol.

[BankGuard]

The Problem:
First outing at the range with my new Kimber Tactical Pro II 9mm. Good and bad to report! The good is that it is accurate and does a good job (better then my XD9 SC) of controlling recoil. Not that there is a great deal of recoil with the 9mm but less is better.

The bad is the slide did not go fully into battery on the first round. Ok, I thought, needs to be shot some to break it in. Well 150 rounds went down range with apx 12 failures to feed. Two of those 12 were that the slide appeared to be closed but was not fully into battery as the trigger would not function. The other 10 or so failures were that the round was about half way into the chamber with the slide still open.

What appears to be happening is that the nose of the cartage is catching slightly at times at the very bottom or lip of the feed ramp which is causing the failure to feed fully.

I dropped the gun off at my local gun store/smith to evaluate for me. They will call Kimber and see what they have to say. I sure hope it is a small problem that is correctable as I really like how the gun feels and shoots otherwise.

I was using Remington UMC and American Eagle FMJ 9mm’s and had the same problems with both. You could actually see the two places on the ramp where the marks in the burnt power residue showed where the rounds were hitting the ramp. Most were hitting just below the chamber and the others were at the very bottom of the ramp. Most of the failures to feed were in the first 75 rounds. I was able to get four mags of 9 in a row run through just after the first 100 rounds were fired with no problems.

One other good thing is that there were no failures to extract. I got hit at the top of my safety glasses a couple of times by ejecting rounds but that’s why we wear them when shooting. Most rounds ejected about one to two feet to my right side.

The Fix:
The gun was sent to Kimber (was gone about 2 weeks). They polished the feed ramp to a very high luster. Results ? Well I went to the range today and fired 180 rounds of the same ammo as listed above. I have 4 mags and shot the 4 in rotation with 9 rounds in each 5 times. Absolutly no problems.
I'm a happy camper!! No rounds failed to feed or eject and no rounds hit me in the head. This is a sweet gun to fire as a relief to the thumping of a full charge 230 grain .45 cal. Thankyou Kimber!

[Lorance]

Just got back from the range. My Kimber LTP II would not fire, I discovered the fireing pin is frozen. I got the gun in February and have about 3000 rounds through it. Has anyone else had this problem? Does anyone know the cause / cure?

[Sergeant Sabre]

Originally Posted by Lorance

Just got back from the range. My Kimber LTP II would not fire, I discovered the fireing pin is frozen. I got the gun in February and have about 3000 rounds through it. Has anyone else had this problem? Does anyone know the cause / cure?

Your schwartz safety parts could be broken, or your firing pin may be broken. Remove it and see what's inside (if ya can get it out)

[Lorance]

Ok I tried to take the firing pin out but it was stuck. So off to my local gun smith I go.

The Problem: I had taken my gun back to the shop where I bought it because the back sight came loose. They fixed that by lock tighting the small set screw under the sight in place. So when the firing pin problem occure the first thing I did was call the shop and ask what the likelyhood was that the lock thight had gotten into the the fireing pin.

Answer "Not a chance, the set screw is not drilled through into the the chamber."

Wrong - the firing pin and spring was locked tight shut. It took about 20 minutes with the two of us depressing safety features and tapping the the pin free.

Moral: According to this gunsmith. Only use lockthigh as a last resort you can set the screw by tighting it and then tapping it lightly in place. No lock tight needed.

I'm off to the range for a test fire. So happy my Kimber is back working.

[BrianMajors]

That's a pretty unusual malfunction there with the firing pin. Thanks for sharing that one. You just don't see that one every day.

Thanks, everybody for your posts. This is exactly what I was going for with this sticky.

[Doc2005]

A few months back, I bought an Eclipse Ultra. It consistently left the bullets jammed against the frame's ramp. This model has stainless steel frame/slide, not ramped barrel as with aluminum.

In all seriousness, the pistol would "jam" in excess of 90% of the time for the first 100 rounds. I cleaned the pistol and the same problem continued, but diminished to an approximate 50% failure (jamming into the frame ramp). By all means, the pistols was "broken-in" by now. Even after 550 rounds, the failure rate was 28%. While it was improving, it remained problematic enough that I could not use it for concealed carry. This time, I broke out the brightest light I owned, grabbed a magnifying lens and looked into my pistol...black oxide!

The frame's ramp was never polished! It was as-black-as the outside of the pistol. I have never seen an Eclipse with a Black Oxide-finished ramp...never. They were all polished shiny and bright. So, being the owner of a nice Dremel tool, I broke out the Dremel and the buffing compound. I did not want to remove any steel, just the black oxide. I also noted that the center of the ramp was being buffed up a nice silvery color by the bullets over time. But, that some expensive buffing. So, setting my Dremel on 1, the lowest setting, I polished, wiped, polished and wiped.

So, for my test, I set my thesis as "The black oxide's course texture caused the bullets to hang up on the frame's ramped surface. Furthermore, if polished, the problem would be eliminated. Now I had to test my thesis. I developed a three-phased test: Phase I slow manual; Phase 2 rapid manual; and Phase 3 live-fire.

For phase I, I did a manual pre-firing test, I designed a test at home. I would manually load a total of 100 rounds into various magazines. Using both FMJs and HPs, I manually manipulated the slide as-slow-as possible, round by round out of the magazine, the bullet bumping up against the ramp...paused, then resumed feeding up the ramp and into the chamber as slowly as I possibly could to test the slickness of the ramp. After settling into battery, would manually eject the rounds as quickly as I could to test the ejector. The rate of proper feeds was now 100%! Not one single round failed, and I mean I fed them SLOWLY!

For Phase 2, I reloaded these same 100 rounds, and cycled them through the pistol manually as quickly as I could, and this series allowing the recoil spring to do the work. Again, I had 100% proper feeding, and zero failures.

For Phase 3, I took these same 100 rounds of ammunition to the range. The same ammunition that I had used previously. All 100 rounds fed, fired and ejected flawlessly! Finally, I can use my Eclipse Ultra for what it was intended...my primary concealed carry.

My point of this posting is that I am noting dozens of people having fail to feed problems. I strongly suggest you check your ramp under bright, bright light and literally use a magnifying lens...not the eye.

I only wish that I had taken some before and after photos of the frame's ramp. All the same, the numbers speak clearly in support of checking the finish of the ramp if you are having difficulties.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Gene

[RAPTOR2]

Okay, so my dealer swapped out the shipped Kimber mag. I am still getting FTL with any ammo. Can't get through one box of 50 of anything. So I bought a Mccorimick 8 round mag at the range today. First slide pull to load and guess what--FTL!
SOLUTION Two thiings. One back to my dealer for a field strip (they will teach me this hands on) Second a look at the firing pin. Not fixed yet, but will be. I will report back later. Still in love here and having way too much fun!
Scott

[dbltaptm45]

I have a Kimber Custom TLEII that functions 100% with over 1,200 rounds through it.
It always hit about 4 to 5 inches low at 25 yards. This was ok, at the time, as I was giving the pistol a truly good function test before I carry it on duty. As it has "passed",a call to Kimber was necessary in order to correct the sight issue. This resulted in the slide being shipped from Kansas and returned in a week. They installed the correct front sight and also installed a new rear sight, as the inserts were dim.
I felt this was outstanding service.
I'm pleased.

[turboman2004]

Please re-read what this thread is for. It isn't for the type of information you posted. Thread edited as it was off topic.

[Bill G Gonzales]

One of the ampules on my Kimber night sights turned the paint around it pink. This means that the tritium is leaking out of the ampule. I send the slide and sights back to Kimber, they replaced them.

I bought a used Custom Classic and it wouldn't function. The major problem was the failure to eject spent brass. I tuned the extractor by adjusting tension and polishing the hook area. This worked and the gun runs great now.

I bought a used Eclipse Pro (different gun than above). It wouldn't function reliably for more than two mags. It was failing to eject the spent brass. I tried to tune the extractor, but I could not fix the problem. I replaced the Kimber extractor with a Wilson Bullet Proof extractor and the gun runs like a top now.

Good post Bill G. That is the type of info we hope this thread generates for the members.

[Stinger1]

Originally Posted by MarkW

Good post Bill G. That is the type of info we hope this thread generates for the members.

I second that!!!!!!

RC

[BrianMajors]

Pictures of some of the Kimber external extractor designs, originally posted for us by Chuck S.

[MountainPacker]

I had terrible problems with nose dive feed jams. This was with HP as well as WWB FMJ ammo. After $2,000 in shipping, custom work and test ammo (mostly Hydrashok test ammo) and a year of screwing with it, here's the cause and cheap fix.

Problem:

The gun was cycling too fast for the magazine (Wilson, Kimber, CMC Powermag, Mec-Gar...) to lift the cartridges into proper position before being caught by the returning slide and pushed nose down into the frame just below the feed ramp.

Solution 1:

Switch to Tripp Cobramags. The incredibly powerful spring in those magazines and the higher height of the top round solved the feeding problem. They do, however, stick out quite a bit from the grip. They hang down the same as a Wilson 47D, but flair out wider. My solution for when I wanted more concealability was Tripp's upgrade kit placed in Wilson magazine tubes with the slim basepad. This gave me the improved spring and follower and a completely reliable 7 round, nearly flush fit magazine.

Solution 2:

The new XP spring from Wolff designed specifically for the 4" Kimbers slowed down the cycle time enough that now it runs with all the magazines, even a Wilson 47D loaded 8+1 with Gold Dot (widest HP mouth I had) hollow points. I have no doubt it would also run with Corbons, but I didn't have any for tesing and since I prefer the GD, I didn't want to buy them just for the accademic exercise.

Conclussion:

It's now a COMPLETELY RELIABLE $3,000 Kimber Eclipse Pro Target II. If you have the same problem and can learn from my experience, you can solve the same problem for $100 worth of magazines or $8 for a spring.

Happy shooting.

[coho]

Purchased on 6/18. FTE and FTF problems from the get. Dennis at kimber sent me a new extractor. Did not solve problems. 4 mags, wilson, para, McCormick, kimber still hung up feeding. Extractor would constantly leave 5th round half way out every mag. 850 rounds into it, mostly white box winchester with a myriad of defense loads thrown in. Sent back to Kimber for repair. Arrived yesterday new match barrel, new guide rod(polished), polished chamber/breech, third extractor(the 120). First mag ran fine, then 4 consecutive mags FTE 2nd rd. Again, three other people who shoot IPSC also shot with the same results. Dennis has been good so far so I resent gun again to kimber. The feeding problem is gone. The extraction problem got worse. The gun does shoot one hole. Got to like that part. I'll update final results. Thanks brianmajors for the extractor pics, very helpful.

Sent the President of Kimber a letter certified and my firearm back friday I called today and they are working on it since yesterday according to dennis. I am ultra concerned why it would take 2 more days actually smithing on the gun. It is necessary for me to have 100% confidance that a gun will go bang everytime.


Called today 7/21/05. John said they would probably get to it later today or tomorrow????? hmm.

[BarryinIN]

I appreciate the picture of the various external extractor configurations.
But, there is at least one more. At least the one in my TLE II is different.

Three of the four extractors pictured have what I call the "gutter". That's the cut that would be on the lower left (inner) corner when the part is installed in the gun.
On mine, that cut extends farther forward than the ones shown. It runs all the way up to, but doesn't cut out, the tip of the hook. It essentially eliminates the ramping area.

Other than that, it looks like the extractor that's pictured second from left. Same shape and angles.

FWIW, my gun is stainless, and according to Kimber, was made in late December 2003. I've had zero extractor trouble.

[RAPTOR2]

Originally Posted by RAPTOR2

Okay, so my dealer swapped out the shipped Kimber mag. I am still getting FTL with any ammo. Can't get through one box of 50 of anything. So I bought a Mccorimick 8 round mag at the range today. First slide pull to load and guess what--FTL!
SOLUTION Two thiings. One back to my dealer for a field strip (they will teach me this hands on) Second a look at the firing pin. Not fixed yet, but will be. I will report back later. Still in love here and having way too much fun!
Scott

I just put another 250 rounds through the Raptor 2 and not one misload! Tight tolerances take time I guess. I am thinking about 700 or 800 rounds so far may have done the trick.
Scott

[dbltaptm45]

Another update..same gun that I shipped the slide to Kimber for the correct front sight... I shipped them the frame last week...reason? Loose...and I mean LOOSE plunger tube. The ejector is getting loose as well... I am *supposed to* receive the frame back tomorrow....hmmm. time will tell.
Don't know if I am still quite so pleased...My current Kimber has the internal extractor.. I don't trust the "new" external one.... I'll keep this Kimber though

[TENALPHA8]

Gun; Kimber Pro Carry II, stainless, internal extractor. Problem; FTF ( nose of the round "up" half way into the chamber. happens about 2 times every 60-70 rounds, with the factory Kimber mag as well as a new Wilson. Solution; was the new Wolff recoil spring, Brownells part number 969-000-137. The new spring was at least 2 coils longer than the replaced factory spring. 100 rounds of WW white box with no problems so far.