Colt Ace Question

[westgard]

Hi,
I have a fist year production Colt ACE pistol. It's not a .22 conversion unit. It's a very nice 'shooter condition' gun. I took it to the range this weekend and was getting a lot of stovepipes and other issues. I was going to change the recoil spring out, but quite frankly I don't know where I can even buy replacement springs. Can anybody give me some help? I can provide the dimensions of the spring, a little research told me that it's a 14# spring, but it is smaller than a 1911 spring, in both diameter and length.
Thanks!

Information

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[jmoore]

Service Ace or it's predecessor the Colt Ace? The earlier one w/o the floating chamber insert never was hugely reliable, hence the change. Run as weak a spring as will close the slide w/ a full mag, and try different ammo, usually you can find something that will work pretty well.

It's been a while since I worked on a Pre-Service Ace, so the factory spring specs are forgotten. We used to just make up new ones as required and "tweaked" 'em as needed, often several times!

[browningautorifle]

Apparently the copper plated bullets work best because they're a bit harder. I had two ace conversions and found like jmoore says the spring needs hand selection and if the hold open won't work, sometimes a new slide stop helps. Keep it clean. Got pics?

[westgard]

Hi,
It's actually a 1st year production Colt Ace (1931...). I figured I would try a bunch of different springs, starting with the heavier springs and working my way lighter, until I find something that works. I just don't know where to start and get myself something that physically meets the requirements of the gun.

[jmoore]

The recoil springs on these are MUCH lighter than a Sevice Ace or any of the center fires. It almost feels like a toy gun spring- very soft. If you get a regular "out of the box" spring w/ an advertised "weight" to work, do please let us know.

[westgard]

Well, after a LOT of springs and experimentation, I finally got a spring to work (starting with heavier/longer springs and slowly working down).
It is a Wolff 9# reduced power recoil spring for a 1911a1, cut to 4.0 inches. Works like a champ. Also, I am using .22 LR mini-mag ammo, copper plated, which is a bit longer than the other brands that I had kicking around. The longer round nose round was the one that fed most reliably (without a hitch actually). I am actually ordering 7# and 8# springs to see if I can go back up to 4.75 inches, which is the spring length of the spring that was in there originally, don't know if 4.75 inches is spec. Anybody know?

[browningautorifle]

I had the original spring and as stated they feel like a toy gun. It was however full length.