M&P Apex trigger sear engagement question

Question for you M&P folks out there.
I just installed the Apex AE trigger in my early (2007) M&P with the Apex TRS and now the trigger bar isn’t engaging the sear enough to release it. A quick google led me to a 9yr old video from Apex showing how to open up the loop of the trigger bar to increase the engagement sufficiently to release the sear. This was the first time I’d ever heard of a need to do any tinkering/tuning on Apex parts and everything else in the gun dropped right in as expected. Am I just not paying attention, or is this an expected adjustment when adding the trigger? The striker block, sear and associated springs were already in the gun with the original trigger and it functioned fine. I’m ok making the adjustment to the trigger bar, just wasn’t expecting to have to do any tuning with the Apex stuff. I figured I should seek some advice before going ahead with it in case I’m missing something. I don’t want to end up with any doubts about this gun since it’s been completely reliable for me for a long time. Thanks.

Following…

I would consider it normal to have to tweak the trigger bar loop. When I Apex'ed both of my 5" 1.0 guns, I had to tweak the loop on each gun. Unfortunately, there's no formula. It's a seat-of-the-pants trial and error adjustment as you're doing it blind, trying to time the striker block with the sear drop.

Both of my guns got the forward set sear and the Apex flat faced trigger. The guns would drop the sear before the striker block was completely out of the way. I think I wound up closing the loop completely down and then gradually opened it back up little by little until it would release the striker. If the loop is too big, then the sear drops before the block is out of the way.

It does make for a pretty decent trigger once you're done.

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Originally Posted by NETim

I would consider it normal to have to tweak the trigger bar loop. When I Apex'ed both of my 5" 1.0 guns, I had to tweak the loop on each gun. Unfortunately, there's no formula. It's a seat-of-the-pants trial and error adjustment as you're doing it blind, trying to time the striker block with the sear drop.

Both of my guns got the forward set sear and the Apex flat faced trigger. The guns would drop the sear before the striker block was completely out of the way. I think I wound up closing the loop completely down and then gradually opened it back up little by little until it would release the striker. If the loop is too big, then the sear drops before the block is out of the way.

It does make for a pretty decent trigger once you're done.

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Thanks for your input. I’m disappointed in myself for not knowing this was a normal part of the process. 3 demerits.

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Originally Posted by Chefdog

Thanks for your input. I’m disappointed in myself for not knowing this was a normal part of the process. 3 demerits.

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I wouldn't kick yourself around too much. :) It's worth the effort. Just a PITA is all. Open the loop just enough to drop the striker reliably. No more.

The 2.0's are easier to Apex.

Roger that. Thanks NETim.

Back to normal function, not exactly sure how far I had to open it up, I couldn’t really get a legit measurement with calipers but it was a mm or so I think. The pull and break are vastly improved, and much lighter, I’ll be putting a thumb safety in this as soon as the parts get here (although I’m a bit nervous since I have to cut the notches in my frame). Staring at the sights and dry firing over and over I noticed that there’s a very slight, maybe 1/16 lateral L->R movement of the slide as the striker releases. Is this normal? Can’t say that I’ve noticed before as the break would noticeably disturb the sights.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Chefdog

Thanks for your input. I’m disappointed in myself for not knowing this was a normal part of the process. 3 demerits.

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I have done several, for myself and several friends, and I think I needed to do this once.
It really was not part of the instructions, I called and Scott told me the score.
I think at this point most of their kits are probably going into 2.0 guns that are different in this regard.

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Originally Posted by mmc45414

I have done several, for myself and several friends, and I think I needed to do this once.
It really was not part of the instructions, I called and Scott told me the score.
I think at this point most of their kits are probably going into 2.0 guns that are different in this regard.

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Yeah, I was surprised I’d never seen anyone do it after the bazillion videos I’ve watched. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was due to the fact that it’s a pretty old sample and the DCAEK kit is at least 10 years old, but the trigger was just delivered yesterday. An engineer would probably say something about tolerance stacking or something to that effect. Wasn’t particularly hard to do, even with my limited mechanical skills, but I’m still much more comfortable punching pins and swapping parts than altering the design of factory parts. Anyhow, all seems to function properly, if the rain ever stops I’ll go test it to make sure.
Thanks for the help.