BARREL LINK ????????

Before my Father passed. We built a pistol from parts he had. A Remington Rand(1945) slide with a NM(real) Barrel and bushing fully fitted to the slide and the barrel NM fitted to the bushing NM. We needed a frame and since he lived in North Port Fl. we went to Fusion in Naples and bought a $275 standard frame, First off my Father and I were just blown away by the slide to frame fit, it assembled like it was hand lapped, smooth as glass an tight! no movement what so ever! My Father in his late 80's wanted to assemble the gun for me so after a couple of trips down there he's done with it and now I have it, Had a trigger job done and stopped at the indoor range to shoot it. Seemed to function flawlessly. Fast forward to cleaning day not long ago and upon disassembly and I found this?  The barrel link hole to the slide stop pin is a 1/16? oversized or more? everything seems to function normally, I have assumed the link came with the barrel but the oversizing appears to be done on purpose IE as with a ream as the hole is round not oval like from being beaten out of round. My dad might have done this for lack of a longer link?  Or is this something an old school 2112 would have done, as I'm sur the parts came out of RR armory, the one on the left is the one in question and they were both #3's.
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As an aside, I have been watching and learning about accurizing 1911's,  And I thought you wanted the barrel lugs to ride the slide stop pin like a roller coaster. on this NM barrel the lugs are HIGHLY polished very smooth , so I started down the path of finding a link that allowed the barrel lugs to ride the pin but with no slop. everyone I tried that was longer would not work until I found a NM #21, the gun locks up like a bank vault, the barrel drops where it's supposed to on the frame and the barrel rises with the front of the lugs right where it's supposed too, and a barrel alinement tool goes right into the FP hole when it's locked up.  have I missed anything?

The numbering on the link represents the center distance between the holes. Larger the number the greater the distance! Lock-up should be on the slide stop pin! Simply putting in a longer link means your slide stop pin diameter is too small or the lower lug on the barrel is too short!  You are simply "riding the link" and that is not good! Accuracy will not improve, trimming will be changed and you'll have lock-up problems associated with the link pushing the barrel up. Link is there to open the gun not close it.

Froneck wrote:The numbering on the link represents the center distance between the holes. Larger the number the greater the distance! Lock-up should be on the slide stop pin! Simply putting in a longer link means your slide stop pin diameter is too small or the lower lug on the barrel is too short!  You are simply "riding the link" and that is not good! Accuracy will not improve, trimming will be changed and you'll have lock-up problems associated with the link pushing the barrel up. Link is there to open the gun not close it.

Yes! I understand the link length #, the link pin fits the frame and fits the link hole as it should, if I used a shorter link it would bind on the lugs not allowing complete up and down travel, with it the way is  the link pulls the barrel down to the frame ramp about a 1/32 of an inch back and when you go into battery it is lifting the barrel up into the locking position, if you have the barrel and link in your hand and put the pin thru it's hole from top to bottom the lugs ride the pin, any shorter and it locks up on the lugs, So your saying it is desirable to use the short link with the hogged out hole? the lugs sit right on the pin in the up position with the long link.

No! The lower lug on the pin must be used to lift the barrel into lock-up not the link! Having a long link will keep the pin off the lower lug! In addition the link will create greater upward force and the barrel will have a difficult time sliding forward until the upper lugs align. If I recall #21 link is the longest available, if it's working your lower lug is too short and requires welding as per Jon's post. Longer link changes the timing so the barrel will unlock later and probably require a lighter recoil spring. That in turn lowers closing force and you get into chasing your tail trying to improve performance!.

It was my understanding the barrel was supposed to ride the link until full lockup and only be on the lugs in flat, otherwise the lugs would get battered somewhere on the radius where they impact the slide stop.

Also among other things the link had to be long enough that the barrel lugs would stop against the frame bow tie/china wall (?) without putting tension on the link, as tested by pressing back on the muzzle while out of battery and checking to see if the slide stop can swing freely.

Froneck wrote:No! The lower lug on the pin must be used to lift the barrel into lock-up not the link! Having a long link will keep the pin off the lower lug! In addition the link will create greater upward force and the barrel will have a difficult time sliding forward until the upper lugs align. If I recall #21 link is the longest available, if it's working your lower lug is too short and requires welding as per Jon's post. Longer link changes the timing so the barrel will unlock later and probably require a lighter recoil spring. That in turn lowers closing force and you get into chasing your tail trying to improve performance!.

you missed the part where I said "the pin rides the lugs like a roller coaster"  simply put the pin rides the lugs it is in contact with the lugs, FUNNY the # 21 link is refereed to as a NM. as tall as these lugs look compared to others, they may have been welded to add material?

I will have to take some pics

Blacken the lower lugs with a sharpie and then cycle the slide a dozen times by hand. There should be no sharpie mark left on the lugs if the barrel is not riding the link into battery.