Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Kimber 84 firing pin spring replacement

Hi all,
My Kimber 84 had a few light primer strikes and after cleaning and checking firing pin protrusion, I got a new spring but I have never changed one before.
Can someone walk me through the process or do I need to take it to a gunsmith to get it changed?

Turns out this is a simple matter of backing off the 1/16 allen and threading the firing pin off to change the spring. 5 minutes if you know what you are doing 15 if you are figuring it out for the first time like I was.
No more light primer strikes!

Who makes the spring?

I got the replacement from Kimber but Wolf also has them at about half the price and they are more powerful.
http://www.gunsprings.com/Rifles%20%26%20Shotguns/KIMBER/MODEL%2084/cID2/mID32/dID153

Great! Thanks.

Gary

FYI - I just got a spring from Wolff labeled for "Kimber 84 Series", but it is too wide to fit into the bolt body. The factory spring has max diameter of .31 inch, but the Wolff spring mikes .35 inch. I called Wolff and was told that most of the Wolff springs labeled for Kimber 84 Series won't fit into the bolt body. If they know this, why not correct the problem?

Suppose I may contact Kimber, unless someone has another source? I tried Brownell, but they don't seem to stock the correct Kimber spring.

In my direct experience with Kimber rifles light primer strikes are commonly due to excess headspace. I would not shoot one without making a chamber cast first. At the very least, measure a freshly fired case. A buddy's 8400 is literally .100 longer than SAMMI specs.

Fine, maybe that's an issue, but if Wolff sells a spring to fit a Kimber bolt, it ought to fit into the bolt body - ya think??

Absolutely!

Only light primer strikes I've had with any Kimber were with CCI 250's. Kimber will send you replacement springs. Pretty messed up. IMO

I have seen many light primer strikes with Kimbers when they have excess headspace...

The only problem I've had with "light" primer strikes has been with Nosler factory ammo (the only factory ammo I've ever tried in my Kimber), which has brass color primers that look like Winchester primers? Nosler ammo fails to fire more than half the time.

My Federal primed handloads always go bang, never once failed to fire, even with new unfired brass. Does this indicate anything significant about headspace?

PS - Might Nosler ammo be loaded to minimal headspace length? And is Winchester brass longer to shoulder?

If one brand of anything fails to fire that often you have big issues and a firing pin spring is just throwing parts at it. A chamber cast costs very little time, effort, or money. It will tell you a lot about what is going on. A piece of fired brass should also give you a clue about the chamber size, but hysteresis usually minimizes the evidence.

They are both all over the place. The chamber should be cut within a few thousandths. The ammo should also be fairly close.

The 338WM mentioned earlier has excess headspace in the .100 realm and still shoots factory ammo more than 95% of the time. It only shows light primer strikes some times.

The recess for the belt is cut that much past spec? Forgive me if I'm obtuse here.

It would appear they used more than one reamer. The shoulder is literally .100 over SAAMI. The belt is about half that.

Obviously someone may have buggered up the reamer in sharpening?

I hate sloppy shoulder areas in belted mag chambers, but if the belt recess is cut right the ignition shouldn't be affected.

Neither are in this case...