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NOTE: Possibly dangerous situation with Walther P22 safety...

64K views 46 replies 28 participants last post by  1917-1911M 
#1 · (Edited)
There's a lot of posts on this forum about the safety walking to the "on" position under recoil. That's annoying, as the gun "going" to "safe" while you're at the range is unexpected.

The problem, it seems, is that the way they designed the detent balls on the safety, allows the safety to lose engagement and go "on."

Mine had this problem on its first trip to the range, and dressing the detent holes on the "fire" position fixed it. My gun now stays on "fire" under recoil.

Last night, however, I noticed a much worse problem. I dry fired the gun a couple of times with the safety "on," and noticed that the safety was MOVING from "safe" to "FIRE!" in about two dry fires. EGAD! Looks like the same thing, the detent holes weren't keeping the lever firmly in place. The hammer hits the safety, when it's "on," in a location that creates rotational / angular force, and this was rotating the safety to "off."

Ultimately, I fixed the situation by doing the modifications on this page:

http://www.sju.edu/~bc165187/fixes.html

That fixed the situation, but I wanted to bring it to everyone's attention. If your gun has this issue, dropping the hammer onto the safety can possibly cause the safety to disengage, and if a round is in the pipe this can be VERY dangerous.

Now, I was doing dry firing practice with a verified unloaded weapon and all my ammo locked up in a safe. "Good" range and safety practices should keep you out of trouble (i.e., when you're working with or anywhere NEAR live ammo, you don't pull the trigger, whether the safety is on or off, without having the gun pointed down range...), but its still something to be aware of.

And ultimately, its an issue that would cause me NOT to suggest this gun to novice shooters. My opinion of the gun is high, but I'm worried that you need to be a mechanically adept "tinkerer" to get the bugs worked out. Not good, in my view.
 
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#2 ·
I have a late 2004 model P22 and they seemed to of fixed this problem. the safety is real solid in the off and on position. so good news for those who are thinking of buying one. i did have a problem with my dual action tho but solved it by removeing the magazine safety, turns out it was binding on the trigger bar.
 
#4 ·
Well if you dont know what part is the magazine safety just look inside of the magwell and near the top twards the front or barrel side you will see a piece that has a indent in it that fits the front of the magazine, when the magazine is in it pushes up on this part and makes it flush with the rest of the mag well.

What i did was i removed the roll pins holding the plastic recever to the metal inners then with that removed i split the trigger box. i was real carefull and used a rag to cover the case just incase some springs decided to fly out on me but really had none of that. also forgot to say pay special attention to the spring for the slide catch and how its spring goes when removeing the plastic handle bit
anyways when you get the case split pay special attention to the key lock (if you want to keep it) the spring likes to come off then all i did was remove the magazine safety from around the trigger and put it all back together. the magazine safety has its own little recess so when you put the trigger back in with out it there is no new slop. and now im totally happy with this little gun :)
 
#5 ·
Thanks Parabellum. My gun is off getting fixed now, but when it returns I plan on removing the mag safety and the key lock (it is ok to remove it right?). I wonder if you could possibly take a few minutes and write detailed instructions for doing both of those mods (and post any pictures if you have them). My gun wont be back for two to three weeks, so whenever you could get it done.

Thanks a lot
Mr. Joseph
 
#6 ·
well i dont want to take it apart again for the sake of takeing pictures of how to do it. as for the keylock you will see how when you split the case open. its easy just pull it out. if what i wrote above is not enough when you get into it just post here and ill try and help you as much as i can. also download the parts diagram before you get into it. it might help you put it back together just incase something more comes out than you wanted. just take it apart slowly and if its not comeing apart easy something else is holding it in. do not force. if you force it you risk makeing more come apart than you wanted.
 
#7 ·
well, we just experienced this problem for the first time today. My 12 yr old daughter was shooting her first IDPA match with her P22, which she has shot maybe 4 or 5 other times with no problems. The pistol is almost 1 yr old and has about 600 rounds through it.

Today was different.

On the first stage she was getting about 60% clicks and 40% bangs. I could see the safety lever walking back and forth between SAFE and FIRE as the hammer hit it.

Tightening down the screws on both safety levers fixed the problem temporarily. This is definitely a safety concern and folks should be aware that it might start happening to a pistol which has been working flawlessly previously.
 
#8 · (Edited)
Well one of these days when im feeling up to it ill have to take mine apart again and make some nice instructions with pictures. i took my P22 out to the range 2 weeks ago to test out my little fix and the gun worked flawless even with the same rounds i had problems with not cycleing the slide. i dunno if it had something to do with it or why it would but im very happy with it. i did have to stiffen up the mag catch spring, it seemd to of gotten easier to move after removeing those parts. i just used one of the springs that came out of the mag safety to stiffen up the mag catch. :)

i put 400 rounds through it and the double action and everything else worked great through the while thing useing AE
 
#10 ·
safety walk

this safety walking on while firing is total bull dung. german engineering my ***.
Brand new gun and it cannot be trusted. My ruger mark one has run perfectly for twenty three years. If the Krauts can't get the safety right then nothing else matters. Anyone want to buy a walther p22 target model, make me an offer....Atlanta
 
#37 ·
this safety walking on while firing is total bull dung. german engineering my ***.
Brand new gun and it cannot be trusted. My ruger mark one has run perfectly for twenty three years. If the Krauts can't get the safety right then nothing else matters. Anyone want to buy a walther p22 target model, make me an offer....Atlanta
If you're serious about selling it, gimme a holler @ spurrit@broncrider.com
 
#12 ·
One thing I realized the last time I had mine apart is that there are tiny little springs in the safety levers under the detent balls.

I stretched mine out a bit, and filled the channel partway with soft rubber caulk.

This makes the detent balls REALLY engage with the detent holes, and has fixed completely this issue for me.

So keep it in mind.
 
#13 ·
saftey walking on

I have had my p22 for a year now and have had the saftey walk on I enlarged the holes a little and tightened the screws this has helped some but not completly solved the problem. After looking at the pictures of the fix I am going to take the levers off and file them .Great info here.
 
#18 ·
Folks,

FYI, this problem still continues on new P22s. I bought a NIB P22 early March. I had numerous FTFs and discovered the safety was activating. I sent the gun to Walther/S&W. Turn around time was slightly over three weeks, (just over 4 weeks if you count the time it took them to mail me a UPS return label).

I took the P22 to the range with my son and some of his friends. The problem is STILL THERE! It is better but not fixed. I watched everyone shooting closely. I could see the safety walking out and back into position as it was fired. My son experienced 2 FTFs. It is 100 times better than is was before the repairs. Initially the safety activated after every round.

Here is what was in the repair letter from S&W:

Repaired: Repair Safety Detent

Repaired: Check Feed w/hi Vel. Ammo

Repaired: Replace Reciol Spring
 
#19 ·
Reply to safety issues

I had the problem of the safety kicking on after firing approx 100 rnds through. I carefully took the safety levers apart and cleaned them real good with solvent then oiled them. It seemed that the springs and balls got caked up with carbon and prevented the ball to completely expand to keep the lever in the fire position. so now a regular maintenance after a couple hundred rnds I make it a point to clean the safety levers. I haven't had a problem since.
 
#21 ·
AZkick-n40 said:
I tried all the links in this thread - are there any updated links that work?

Thanks!

Brian
Links! Links! We don't need no stinkin links. This is RFC. We are the link.:) :p :t M1911



Before you do any modifications make sure that the detents are clean and try tightening both the safety lever screws a bit. That might be all your pistol needs.

If not, make sure the pistol is unloaded, then with the proper sized screwdriver you remove one of the safety levers, do the following work, reinstall it and repeat on the other side. Here the lever has been removed. Note the detent ball that drops in the detent holes. Note the center bar on the safety lever that drops into the receiver inside the slide. This item must not be entirely ground off or the levers won't rotate the safety.



Picture of the safety lever and associated screw.



Take a small file or emery paper and lightly file/sand "each" shoulder just a little. Here a small file is resting on one shoulder. Then you lightly file/sand the tip sticking up removing the same amount of material you did from the shoulders. e.g., If you removed 0.005" from the shoulders, remove 0.005" from the center catch. What you are doing is removing just a little material so that the ears will sit a little closer/tighter against the slide.

This will cause the detent ball under the safety lever to be pressed tighter against the detent holes firming up movement of the levers. Reinstall the safety lever . Still loose, file a little more. Keep your work neat and square. Don't get carried away, remove a little at a time. You can always take more off, you can't put any back on.;) Put a little blue Threadlocker on that clean screw once you're good to go and ready for final assembly. That's all. :t M1911
 
#22 ·
safety levers

My p22 also has that tendency to walk torwards safe mode, i tried filing them down a bit but I don't think i got them quite low enough yet. Could someone post a pic of their safety levers after filing so I can compare sizes? Also, would it be a bad idea to stretch the springs out?
 
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