Benchmade 940 Stop Pin Gap

B

BennyD

Joined
Sep 2, 2018
Messages
11
Hello everyone, new guy here...

My new 940-2 came to me yesterday with a gap between the stop pin and the liner. This gap prevented the liners from being parallel and made it impossible to tune the pivot. Upon taking the knife apart I found metal shavings stuck between the stop pin and the liner.

After removing the shavings and cleaning up the groved end of the stop pin, the pin still wouldn’t seat flush with the liner. So I did what I didn’t want to and took it to the vice and carefully pressed the pin all the way into the liner. It’s seated better now but there is still a small gap.

I really like this knife, I just hope I can get this kinked worked out so I can break it in properly. Has anyone else noticed this stop pin/liner gap on their 940?

Ben
 
Welcome to Blade Forums!
I’d have sent the knife back to the retailer or Benchmade before I took it to the vise. For better or worse you’re stuck with the knife now. I hope it works out for you.
I have a 940 and a 943 and never had stop pin issues.
 
BennyD said:
Hello everyone, new guy here...

My new 940-2 came to me yesterday with a gap between the stop pin and the liner. This gap prevented the liners from being parallel and made it impossible to tune the pivot. Upon taking the knife apart I found metal shavings stuck between the stop pin and the liner.

After removing the shavings and cleaning up the groved end of the stop pin, the pin still wouldn’t seat flush with the liner. So I did what I didn’t want to and took it to the vice and carefully pressed the pin all the way into the liner. It’s seated better now but there is still a small gap.

I really like this knife, I just hope I can get this kinked worked out so I can break it in properly. Has anyone else noticed this stop pin/liner gap on their 940?

Ben
Click to expand...

Call Benchmade and send it in to them for warranty service. They can probably set you right.
 
Pics or it didn't happen. Also yea, send those Benchmades in or exchange it before trying to fix it. Now it's yours. I do agree it Sucks to buy just to send them back to fix issues.
 
Just stared at my 940 – 1501 shining a flashlight through the back and the front and the sides and it seems like my unit does not have as much space between the stop pin and liners on either side. I enlarged your pictures and tweaked the histogram and it looks like you fixed it. But if you are not satisfied send it in to Benchmade instead of sending it back to your vendor for an exchange, which is the cost for those of us that Tinker.
 
Thank you for your replies, I have contacted benchmade to see what can be done about this. So a little gap is normal?
 
Looks like a couple dimples on the flats of the stop pin (where the star pattern is cut) that are preventing the pin from sitting flush.

oPQCVdH.png


I noticed the same gap on my 940, but it didn't cause issues with action or centering so I've not looked that closely at the stop pin. Since you've already used a vise on the knife, file those dimples off.
 
Yep BTGuy, that’s what was causing the excessive gap. Benchmade got back with me today and notified me that a gap between the liner and stop pin is necessary for the pivot to function properly. Makes since. Anyway, I believe the gap is normal sized now after some impatient tinkering and after the break in period I should be good to go!
 
BennyD said:
Yep BTGuy, that’s what was causing the excessive gap. Benchmade got back with me today and notified me that a gap between the liner and stop pin is necessary for the pivot to function properly. Makes since. Anyway, I believe the gap is normal sized now after some impatient tinkering and after the break in period I should be good to go!
Click to expand...
I'm sorry for reviving an old topic. But I had exactly the same issue about a year ago with my brand new 943.
And this is absolutely not normal and only tells us about the infamous Benchmade QC.
This is a beautiful Osborne design and brilliant axis lock which is ambidextrous and should be symmetrical. There should be absolutely no noticeable gap at the stop pin on one side or another.
In my case, it was a little piece of metal scrap stuck between the pin and the liner on one side. This actually had an effect on the action and on washers' alignment (I could see an uneven gap between washers and inner liners through bright light due to increased width at the top of the liners).
I tried to disassemble the knife to remove it. Of course, I stripped a couple of tiny 6t screws during disassembly and broke both of my t6 thanks to the liberate amount of some crazy strong Loctite Benchmade is also famous for. I was able to get to the pin and remove that metal scrap piece but had to send the knife back to Benchmade to remove and replace stripped screws from scales. After removing that particle the pin had no gaps, action improved and washers were dead flush with the blade and inner liners with no light leaking between.
I have to admit that the lifetime warranty really works and I got the stripped screws removed and replaced (I also asked do not to drown it in loccite this time) but it would be much better to get it like this out of the box without all the hassle.
I have big doubts that those dimples on the pin in the picture above are normal (in my case there were no dimples). IMO it is just a bad qc and/or manufacturing process. Again, there should be no gaps.
Was that a straight lie from Benchmade support that this is normal or just misunderstanding?... idk...
 
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SGMIM, no worries. It’s an old topic but I still carry this knife and have actually had to replace the omega springs since then due to lots of pocket time and excessive flipping? I sure hope it was just a misunderstanding and not a cover up about the gap. Seems a silly thing to do to risk damaging a reputation. I actually work in QC in a different industry now and can’t say I blame them for shelling out a dud now and then, as human error will always be there in my opinion. It’s probably the only knife I’d never sell because of my “modifications” but I’m okay with that. The more I carry it, the more I’ve come to appreciate the design.

Ben
 
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