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Question for those 1911 masters out there. I have a 1911 that when taking up the slack to the wall exhibits a slight "click" in the trigger. My original thought is that it is disconnector related, as it would seem to make the most sense (happening when taking up the pre-travel in the trigger). Any thoughts or experience with this? Could be a series of tolerances? Its not really a function issue, but it does become noticeable at times. Thank you.

I had a 1911 that did that. I sent it to Cylinder and Slide to eliminate it. It came back worse, and I was out of pocket over a hundred bucks. Sell it or live with it.

Is it series 70 or 80? There's several parts that move when you pull the trigger back. Obviously it's one of the interfaces between the moving parts, but determining which one might take some time. Removed one part at a time and see if it makes a difference. I'd take the firing pin plunger out first. Leave everything else in place, see if it makes a difference. Then do the same with the disconnect etc...

It’s a series 70. Maybe taking out the disconnector would be a good idea to see what happens. Great idea that I did not think about.

My guess is the wrong angle on the sear or to much hammer notch. It doesn’t take much to make a bad feeling trigger. I have a colt gov. that had a terrible trigger in it. I bought a sear jig, some stones, and a hammer sharing file.
It took me about four times taking it apart and putting it back together but the trigger is pretty nice now.
It isn’t that hard to do, watch a couple videos on YouTube about 1911 trigger jobs.
IMO a 1911 might be the simplest handgun to disassemble and reassemble.

I would look at the 3 finger spring. Doesn’t make sense that the disconnector would make a click since it is pinned to the sear and the pad should be on the trigger bow.

If it just started it and you had not done anything to the pistol, depending on how long you have had it, I would strip it and clean it. Looking for any problems along the way. Good time to replace any springs that need it.
If there is still a problem, might want seek a good 1911 smith.

I think I have it narrowed down a bit. Without the slide on the frame, no clicking. I tore it all down and did a good cleaning, had not done that in a while. I’m doing a bit more digging on what could be causing it. The disconnector does have some forward movement to it when pulling the trigger. It may be that it is just rubbing a bit in the notch in the slide for the disconnector. We will see what happens...

The condition you describe is usually caused by excessive clearance between the top of the disconnector and its port at the top of the frame. When you pull the trigger through the second stage, the sear exerts rearward and because of the angles of the contact surfaces, upward force on the disconnector itself.

In battery, the bottom of the slide limits the disconnector's upward movement and the sear is tripped. When there is excessive clearance at the top of the disconnector, its upward extension grates against the slide until it bears against one side of the port. This is why you don't feel the 'click' with the slide off.

The condition is caused by a worn or out of spec disconnector, a worn or out of spec frame port, or both.

The correction is to first replace the disconnector with a new, full dimension factory part. FWIW I've had good luck with Wilson 'Factory Plus' parts. You can count on those to be in-spec with USGI blueprints. Cylinder & Slide and several other reputable outfits offer 'match' disconnectors which are already polished in the right places to facilitate a smooth pull.

If your frame port is worn or oversize, it's more complicated. If you examine old AMTU built target 1911s you will often find one or two punch marks near the disconnector port in the frame, where they have closed it up and reamed it to minimum dimensions to accomplish a crisp second stage of the pull.

Hopefully a new disconnector will solve your problem.

A 1911 won’t work without the disconnector installed. See the working relationship here:

https://www.m1911.org//images/searanim.gif

The trigger can’t reach the sear without the disconnector.

SargeMO has a sound approach.

Some very good answers above.
The 1911 trigger has several points where tolerance stacking and wear can produce trouble.
After you eliminate the disconnector as SargeMO suggests, if the trouble persists look at the sear spring. The left leaf, see if its touching dragging on the frame. A small amount of contact there can make a huge difference.
Please come back and let us know what you find.

Good point. If I'm trying to achieve target trigger, I also polish both contact surfaces between the mainspring and fire control components.

This would be a good time to add I ain't a 1911 Guru, eggspurt or custom gonne-smith. I'm just an armorer level gun mechanic who's rebuilt a pile of them for self and close friends and learned a few things along the way. Kuhnhausen's books on the 1911A1 are money well spent for folks interested in this pistol, and a much better source of info than I am.

Thats me, 35 years of fooling with 1911's. IPSC when I was younger and also poor led me to working on my own stuff. I was lucky enough to have gunsmith friends along the way to keep me from screwing up too bad.

You're right on the sear spring, You could write a short book on prepping just that one part. The middle leaf where it contacts the disconnector is sometimes so sharp it shaves metal off the little ramp. Amazing how the small things affect how well and how long the trigger components last.

A long time friend brought me a new-ish TRP that he paid a "smith" to tune the trigger. It came back worse than when he left it. The guy had cut the escape angle to almost 75% of the sear face. It would break at 3lb one pull then 1.5lb the next. He didn't catch the left side of the sear spring digging into the frame. Replaced and correctly fitted new sear and relieve the side of the sear spring and he left with a nice consistent 2.75lb trigger.

If that guy had shortened the hammer hooks any at all he would have created a full auto. Won't far from it anyway.

Good stones, jigs, tools and a magnifier are a must if you want to fool with the 1911 trigger. Especially the sear to hammer engagement.

And like you I'll add that I'm by no means anything close to an expert.

So update to where I am at. After reading through the answers here and doing a bit more research, I have come to believe it is the disconnector. I think the description Sarge has stated above is spot on for my issue. After some looking into my options for addressing, I started with deepening the cut in the slide. After just a bit of sanding, my click has gone away. If for some reason it returns I will be replacing the disconnector with an EGW unit.

I am a generally hobby guy when it comes to most firearms. I like to work on them and it can always be a learning experience. I appreciate everyone’s responses on here. I have learned about my issue and then some. Good stuff!

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Glad you have a handle on it.

I've seen a few disconnectors with slight angles cut on both sides. That may have been done to help some slight misalignment with the disconnector cut?