Spyderco Attaching Military clip causes poor action and lock up

kniferbro

kniferbro

Joined
Jan 22, 2011
Messages
3,193
I recently discovered my Military's action to be off so I set about resetting the pivot tension. What I found was that my normally solid, free dropping Millie could no longer be tuned to the sweet spot. Either it was smooth action with questionable lock up (side to side play as well as some lock movement) or solid lock up, but with a tight action. This perplexed me because A.) I tinker a lot and can usually get a knife to where I want it and B.) It had always had excellent action and lock up.

Well after playing around, disassembling, cleaning and inspecting parts, putting back together, etc. I found that with the pocket clip removed the action and lock up were perfect, but once I screwed that clip on everything was out of wack. My first thought was maybe the screws were poking out the inside of the liners and interfering with the blade. I investigated this potential cause and found that the screws did not extend past the liner, ruling out the clip screws physically touching the blade and disrupting the action. Seemingly the clip screws are pulling or pushing on something that's causing parts to not fit together properly. I'm at a loss. I've never run the knife with out a clip, but have taken it off during disassembly before, I have no idea why this knife suddenly started exhibiting these problems.

Any thoughts?
 
It sounds like the clip screws are pulling the liner when tightened and shifting the pivot. I've never experienced this myself but have heard about it. I would attempt to install the clip with the screws tightened as minimally as possible while holding it in place. Maybe do one screw at a time until you find a balance.
 
Miketbass said:
It sounds like the clip screws are pulling the liner when tightened and shifting the pivot. I've never experienced this myself but have heard about it. I would attempt to install the clip with the screws tightened as minimally as possible while holding it in place. Maybe do one screw at a time until you find a balance.
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Thanks for the reply Miketbass, I have played around with tightening the screws to different tension, swapping screws around and nothing seems to change. As long as the clip screws are in enough to hold the clip the action is skewed.
 
kniferbro said:
I recently discovered my Military's action to be off so I set about resetting the pivot tension. What I found was that my normally solid, free dropping Millie could no longer be tuned to the sweet spot. Either it was smooth action with questionable lock up (side to side play as well as some lock movement) or solid lock up, but with a tight action. This perplexed me because A.) I tinker a lot and can usually get a knife to where I want it and B.) It had always had excellent action and lock up.

Well after playing around, disassembling, cleaning and inspecting parts, putting back together, etc. I found that with the pocket clip removed the action and lock up were perfect, but once I screwed that clip on everything was out of wack. My first thought was maybe the screws were poking out the inside of the liners and interfering with the blade. I investigated this potential cause and found that the screws did not extend past the liner, ruling out the clip screws physically touching the blade and disrupting the action. Seemingly the clip screws are pulling or pushing on something that's causing parts to not fit together properly. I'm at a loss. I've never run the knife with out a clip, but have taken it off during disassembly before, I have no idea why this knife suddenly started exhibiting these problems.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

When I take my Millies apart...I never take the clip off of the frame. There's a hole in the middle of it for a reason. :) Try taking the knife completely apart again and re-attach the clip to the frame first, and then re-assemble the knife to see if that helps.
 
Try playing with the stop pin screws, perhaps tightening them will help keep the pivot ridged. If that doesn't work is loosen all screws, tighten the clip down, and go from there.

If it did not have this issue before it can be fixed, and I've not had any issue with my 6 Millies
 
1SHOT1KILL said:
When I take my Millies apart...I never take the clip off of the frame. There's a hole in the middle of it for a reason. :) Try taking the knife completely apart again and re-attach the clip to the frame first, and then re-assemble the knife to see if that helps.
Click to expand...

I've tried every which way! Like you I normally never take the clip off when disassembling but do every once in a while if it's a full tear down. I've tried mixing things up as much as I can, from experience the order of tightening screws/putting on parts matters!

Miketbass said:
Try playing with the stop pin screws, perhaps tightening them will help keep the pivot ridged. If that doesn't work is loosen all screws, tighten the clip down, and go from there.

If it did not have this issue before it can be fixed, and I've not had any issue with my 6 Millies
Click to expand...

It's a new gen Millie with the stepped stop pin so no stop pin screws to fiddle with. It's so weird because it seemingly happened over night. Not really, I don't carry it much nothing major changed that I can think of that would have caused this.
 
115Italian said:
Can the pivot be put in reverse? Ive never tried it but it could help.
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Tried swapping the pivot screws around, but the stepped barrel was in the correct way with the D barrel on the corresponding liner with the flat notch.
 
The clip screws are distorting the steel liner and in turn distorting the bronze washers on the blade.

Tough call with the stop pin not having side pressure adjustment with the new design.

Regards,
FK
 
FK said:
The clip screws are distorting the steel liner and in turn distorting the bronze washers on the blade.

Tough call with the stop pin not having side pressure adjustment with the new design.

Regards,
FK
Click to expand...

Hey FK thanks for the response. That is what I've been thinking too. I'll probably just run it clipless, and buy a new Military for when I want to clip it. Or maybe send it back to Golden to see if they can do anything if I get around to it.
 
I had that on my Ayoob when I lost a screw. The replacement was too long and the action would bind or too short and not bite. I am guessing they originally had a middle size on the G-10 model. I sent it in and they ground the long ones down till they fit right.

But that shouldn't be happening to you if they're the original screws in the stock config. Can you take them out and measure to see if they're all the same size?

And also check to make sure all the parts are in there right, blade washers etc. You might be treating the symptom of another problem causing the binding.
 
I keep coming back to this thread to see if any new solutions to this problem have been proposed, or if anyone can speculate the cause. After looking at my Military collection, all that I can think of is that your stop pin is not properly seated. The old screw together design makes this a non-issue. I've seen a few issues come up on the new design in this regard.

I would make double sure that the floating stop pin is actually seated between the liners. I would even try flipping it to see if that helps. Short of that, send it to Spyderco. Not the answer you may want to hear but as long as the knife is not damaged it should be covered under warranty.
 
Miketbass said:
I keep coming back to this thread to see if any new solutions to this problem have been proposed, or if anyone can speculate the cause. After looking at my Military collection, all that I can think of is that your stop pin is not properly seated. The old screw together design makes this a non-issue. I've seen a few issues come up on the new design in this regard.

I would make double sure that the floating stop pin is actually seated between the liners. I would even try flipping it to see if that helps. Short of that, send it to Spyderco. Not the answer you may want to hear but as long as the knife is not damaged it should be covered under warranty.
Click to expand...

The stop pin is properly seated. I've also tried flipping it.
 
I couldn't tell if you tried switching the two pivot washers around -- four different possibilities, making sure there is not a piece of grit under any of them or stuck in the seating area.
 
Twindog said:
I couldn't tell if you tried switching the two pivot washers around -- four different possibilities, making sure there is not a piece of grit under any of them or stuck in the seating area.
Click to expand...
Oh yes I tried!

At the risk of sounding arrogant, I consider my self an "experienced knife tinker". I tried every possible configuration before I posted here. It's so puzzling to me because 2 months ago the knife was perfectly fine. It really seemed like one day I went to grab it and noticed the blade play, went to tighten things and could NOT get it back to normal. I finally discovered that the clip being on drastically affected the action/lock up. With out the clip it functions flawlessly!
 
Can you send back to spyderco under warranty or is it void?
 
Disassembly does NOT void the Spyderco Warranty.

Note: If you damage or bugger up the knife or screws it is your responsibility and a charge will be necessary.

This was discussed by Spyderco in recent threads when they announced discontinue of the red grade 273 Loctite.

Regards,
FK
 
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