PM2 has side to side play

firefighterguy

firefighterguy

Joined
Sep 30, 2014
Messages
596
My PM2 is ~3 years old and I recently noticed it has developed quite a bit of side to side play. Thinking the pivot may have loosened I tightened it and made sure all other screws were snug. Even if I crank the pivot screw down to where the knife won’t free fall and is difficult to open the blade play is still there!

Any ideas or things to try?
 
Might have to adjust the lock pin the one next to the pivot.
 
You gotta take it apart and clean it thoroughly. Then, it could also matters how much you tighten pivot screws on both sides.
 
Last edited:
You may have over torqued one of the other screws causing warpage in the handle. Don’t disassemble yet.
Try loosening everything, and then retightening the pivot first to eliminate the play. Then tighten the other two handle screws until snug.
If that doesn’t work, there may be a tiny piece of foreign debris inside preventing the handles to position properly. You can either disassemble and clean, or send it in.
I guess it could be that the compression lock has worn a bunch over the last three years and is no longer locking as solid as it did when new. It could have been putting enough force on the tang to prevent blade play. Now it’s worn and can’t lock up as well. Just a thought. Hope you get it worked out.
 
I have a bunch of PM2's from throughout their history, including 1 that's been carried for 4 years or so. What I'm going to talk about is just the relationship between pivot friction and lateral play. I like absolutely zero lateral play with light friction, but not a completely free-falling blade. That's because I do not want the blade to overcome the detent and rebound open when I close the knife.

PM2's come from the factory in a variety of conditions. Some of them are fine and/or will break in fine. Otherwise, or for experimental purposes, here's what I do:
  • Completely disassemble the knife and inspect it carefully
  • Lightly stone all the contact surfaces true. Look especially for burrs on the liners at the pivot and clip holes.
  • Polish all the contact surfaces up to 1k.
  • Polish the washers up to 10k.
  • Make sure all the parts including the scales, are completely clean.
  • Bolt everything up tight, completely dry.
  • I like the pivot and standoff screws to be tight when the friction/play relationship is right, as opposed to having to use differential tightening to accomplish it.
  • If the pivot is too tight, take some material off the washers. If the pivot is too loose, take some material off the ends of the pivot.
  • Lube does occupy some lateral space in the pivot, but my experience has been that the pivot should exhibit the desired f/p relationship dry.
  • Once all the parts are tuned up, lube and assemble.
  • Verify fit and function.
  • Then loctite the screws 1 by 1, and make any small differential adjustments.
This process has worked well for me on the PM2's I've taken apart.
 
Thanks for the input. I’ve tried adjusting the stop pin screw and it seemed to help a little. However, there’s still a decent amount of bladeplay.

Looks like I’ll take it apart next and see if a thourough cleaning helps. If not, then I’ll send it in to Spyderco and see if their warranty is any good.
 
firefighterguy said:
Thanks for the input. I’ve tried adjusting the stop pin screw and it seemed to help a little. However, there’s still a decent amount of bladeplay.

Looks like I’ll take it apart next and see if a thourough cleaning helps. If not, then I’ll send it in to Spyderco and see if their warranty is any good.
Click to expand...
When you are taking it apart, remember to push down enough on the screws with the bit, in a controlled fashion ofcourse. Those screws love to strip. Avoid the pitfall. :thumbsup:
 
firefighterguy said:
Thanks for the input. I’ve tried adjusting the stop pin screw and it seemed to help a little. However, there’s still a decent amount of bladeplay.

Looks like I’ll take it apart next and see if a thourough cleaning helps. If not, then I’ll send it in to Spyderco and see if their warranty is any good.
Click to expand...

It's not rocket science. If the screws are tight and there's still blade play, either the parts have come out of tolerance, or there's foreign material in the way, or both.

The width across the pivot shoulders should match the width of the blade tang. Pretty hard to believe that would have changed. The dimension from the inside face of the scale to the outside face of the blade should be about equal to the liner + washer thickness. There could be crud between the end/s of the pivot and the scales, but that would have been there since the last assembly.

Deterioration of the lube loosens things a bit, but not much. You should be able to establish a relationship between all the parts where there's light friction in the pivot and essentially no lateral play with everything bolted up dry and clean.
 
firefighterguy said:
Thanks for the input. I’ve tried adjusting the stop pin screw and it seemed to help a little. However, there’s still a decent amount of bladeplay.

Looks like I’ll take it apart next and see if a thourough cleaning helps. If not, then I’ll send it in to Spyderco and see if their warranty is any good.
Click to expand...
Sal would probably prefer sending it to spyderco. But yea I would personally do it since i take most of my knives apart on the regular. Just saying it might be best to let them fix it unless your confident.
 
I've had issues with certain G10-handled Spydercos where sometimes everything goes together right and other times it just doesn't want to cooperate. Usually a complete disassembly and a cleaning will put things right, but not always. I'm starting to like the FRN-handled models better (especially the linerless variants) simply because they don't seem to have as many gremlins. :)
 
I've had a lot of Spydercos and never had to take one apart to clean or tighten up. Soap, water, toothbrush, Wd40, screw driver and TriFlow has done the job w/o disassembly. Although it looks easy, being a cutller requires skill and knowledge many don't have, send it in before disassembly.

You're right FourD FourD old school, pinned linerless Spydercos are great!
 
Good news! I completely dissembled and cleaned it and it removed the blade play. I don’t know exactly what it was but I suspect it was some of the threadlocker that had gummed up. When I took it apart there where chunks of the white stuff in all the standoffs and the pivot so I guess that’s what it was.
 
firefighterguy said:
Good news! I completely dissembled and cleaned it and it removed the blade play. I don’t know exactly what it was but I suspect it was some of the threadlocker that had gummed up. When I took it apart there where chunks of the white stuff in all the standoffs and the pivot so I guess that’s what it was.
Click to expand...

Excellent news. Usually when a knife (especially one with liners and an external scale) reassembles with blade play it's because one of the backspacer/standoff assemblies isn't quite flush or screwing together right- dealt with the same issue last night with a Positron.
 
tsiloics said:
I have a bunch of PM2's from throughout their history, including 1 that's been carried for 4 years or so. What I'm going to talk about is just the relationship between pivot friction and lateral play. I like absolutely zero lateral play with light friction, but not a completely free-falling blade. That's because I do not want the blade to overcome the detent and rebound open when I close the knife.

PM2's come from the factory in a variety of conditions. Some of them are fine and/or will break in fine. Otherwise, or for experimental purposes, here's what I do:
  • Completely disassemble the knife and inspect it carefully
  • Lightly stone all the contact surfaces true. Look especially for burrs on the liners at the pivot and clip holes.
  • Polish all the contact surfaces up to 1k.
  • Polish the washers up to 10k.
  • Make sure all the parts including the scales, are completely clean.
  • Bolt everything up tight, completely dry.
  • I like the pivot and standoff screws to be tight when the friction/play relationship is right, as opposed to having to use differential tightening to accomplish it.
  • If the pivot is too tight, take some material off the washers. If the pivot is too loose, take some material off the ends of the pivot.
  • Lube does occupy some lateral space in the pivot, but my experience has been that the pivot should exhibit the desired f/p relationship dry.
  • Once all the parts are tuned up, lube and assemble.
  • Verify fit and function.
  • Then loctite the screws 1 by 1, and make any small differential adjustments.
This process has worked well for me on the PM2's I've taken apart.
Click to expand...
wow a lot of steps
 
FourD said:
I've had issues with certain G10-handled Spydercos where sometimes everything goes together right and other times it just doesn't want to cooperate. Usually a complete disassembly and a cleaning will put things right, but not always. I'm starting to like the FRN-handled models better (especially the linerless variants) simply because they don't seem to have as many gremlins. :)
Click to expand...
I lost my dang mind trying to do a scale swap on a PM2. I have, however, easily taken apart Seki City backlocks and replaced the backspacer and such with no issues whatsoever. Those ones are certainly a lot easier.
 
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