CZ-97B Warped Plastic Recoil Spring Guide Rod

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I've had a brand new CZ-97B sitting in the box in the back of my safe for a while now. It is the old model 97-B with wood grips. The other day I decided to field strip it, lube it up, and get it ready for the range. When I disassembled it I found the factory stock plastic recoil spring guide rod to be badly warped in a bowed position.

The slide racked OK out of the box. But after I field stripped it to lube everything up, (the gun was filthy and dry as a bone from the factory), and reassembled it, I couldn't get the slide to rack. It was binding up after it went back an inch or so. I had to take off the slide and rotate the recoil spring and guide rod so the "bow" in the guide rod went up into the slide, instead of down toward the dust cover like I had it. With the bow in the rod pointing down it seemed to be causing an interference issue. The slide then racked as it should.

The bottom line is that I was not at all satisfied with the cheap, warped, flimsy plastic guide rod supplied with this pistol. I'm afraid to shoot it, for fear the guide rod will rotate 180 degrees through firing, and tie up the gun. Or possibly even damage something. I can't be the only guy that has had this condition develop with this gun, along with it's cheap, flimsy, factory plastic guide rod. So I purchased a nice, polished Stainless Steel Guide Rod from Cajun Gun Works.

https://cajungunworks.com/product/stainless-steel-guide-rod-97bbd-tactical-sport/

It arrived today, and took all of 2 minutes to install. This guide rod is longer, fits better, and keeps everything straight. The slide racks much smoother. Tomorrow I'm going to load up and head for the range. It's really sad to see a premier gun company like CZ put this kind of cheap, flimsy junk into a 42 ounce, all steel .45 ACP full size pistol. If it's money they're after, then charge another $20 bucks and put a decent guide rod in the thing for God's sake. That's not the way a guide rod is supposed to look from just sitting in a pistol, without firing a round through it.





CZ-97B.jpg


CZ-97 Warped Guide Rod 001.JPG
 
I thought I'd google CZ 97 warped recoil rod and holy cow, how many places did you cut/paste/post your problem? 5 other forums right at the top of the results.?

Not another hit for a warped 97 guide rod btw. Stinks you got a bad one but it might not be a big thing.
 
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Arizona heat perhaps?
wink.gif


If polymer is prescribed, might there be a chance that a metal,rod could cause more wear on something?

You didn't post a pic of the new rod.
 
Originally Posted by AMC
Flukes happen.


I agree. But this is not a, "fluke". The rod is too short to begin with. The new rod comes flush to the end of the slide, and passes completely through the guide rod bushing in doing so. As it should. With the plastic OEM rod, I can insert the length of a toothpick into the guide rod bushing before it contacts anything. This allows the spring to bunch up and bow, because there is nothing to support it as it compresses. Along with allowing the rod itself to bend and bow because it is made from material that is too flexible.

And it is also far too thin which exacerbates the problem . Hence the bow from just sitting. Plastic guide rods are no different than plastic anything else. They are OK if manufactured correctly, and are of good design to begin with, (Glock). This one wasn't. Obvious proof of that, is you shouldn't have to start replacing parts in a new pistol before you shoot it, in order to have it function correctly.
 
Originally Posted by Marco620
Call and send a picture. They will send you a replacement I am sure of.


They no doubt will. But why would I want to replace it with the exact same POS part that caused this problem in the first place? This part wasn't "faulty". It's a poor, inadequate design. A bad part is a bad part. Even the CZ Custom Shop in Mesa doesn't show or sell an original OEM replacement plastic guide rod for the 97B. This is the only one they sell that fits it. Like the model I purchased from Cajun Gun Works, it is a full length, Stainless Steel model as well.

https://czcustom.com/cz-75-sp01-sa-tactical-sports-ts-stainless-steel-guide-rod.html
 
Originally Posted by Rodmiser
You can buy a new one.

Originally Posted by xxch4osxx
He did.

Correct. However the point of this whole exercise is I shouldn't have had to.
 
Originally Posted by funflyer
Plastic doesn't fair well when you live where it's hotter than the hobs in Hades.


Well the Arizona temperatures are not really an issue. The inside of my safes are room temperature. (76-78 degrees year round). But even if it was left in the hot Summer Sun, that is nothing compared to how hot it's going to get running 6 or 7 magazines full through the weapon rapid fire. If it can't take atmospheric temperatures, it sure isn't going to stand up the high end operating temperatures.
 
Originally Posted by bubbatime
I've never seen such a thing. Weird. Tons of guns now have plastic guide rods too.

Just a bad design. Not well thought out. It's almost as if they designed a superb pistol, but forgot the guide rod. And threw something together as an after thought, at the last minute. Like you say, many semi auto pistols run plastic guide rods without issues.

Anyway, I got back from the range a while ago, and the new guide rod, along with the gun runs fine. The only trouble I had, I expected. I had read the magazines in these guns are extremely tight when trying to get the last 2 rounds in. They weren't kidding. Even using an Uplula loader, I had to push like crazy to get the last 2 rounds in. This caused a few feeding failures with the first 2 rounds from the magazine. Not all the time, but enough to where if I was to carry this weapon, I would only fill the magazine with 8 rounds +1 in the pipe.

With a full 10 rounds, sometimes the slide didn't have enough energy to strip off the first round. And sometimes it would hang up on the second round as well. If I smacked the rear of the slide with the heel of my hand, it would immediately go into battery. After the second round, all 3 magazines fed fine until they were empty. There just isn't enough space for the spring and follower if you cram a full 10 rounds in. If I ran it with 8 rounds in the mag, it ran flawlessly. I only shot 230 FMJ Ball.

This CZ-97B takes the same exact magazines as the all steel IWI .45 ACP Jericho "Baby Desert Eagle". That gun has the same issues as this CZ if you try to run it with full magazines. So it's definitely a magazine related issue. It doesn't worry me because the thing is way too heavy for a C.C. weapon. It's basically a range toy.

So as far as the "report card" on this thing. Ergonomics along with the trigger get an "A+". Typical CZ. It fits the hand like a glove. The guide rod gets an "F", as do the magazines. This gun should be advertised as an 8 round capacity, not 10. But overall for anyone who is interested in a CZ-97B. Buy yourself a Stainless Steel guide rod when you buy the gun. And only load 8 rounds, and you'll have one fantastic pistol.
 
Bilt- It sounds like that gun is a pre-2013 model 97. The 97 was updated in summer 2013 to resolve the issues you complain of.

My understanding of it was that the magazine follower, feed ramp and chamber were changed to feed hollow points more reliably and not make the magazine so hard to load. The grips were also changed to a much thinner aluminum, just to thin out the grip a little. As for your gun, it may get better as the recoil and magazine springs break in.

If you really do like that gun but can't get used to its flaws, you could trade it in for a newer 97.
 
Originally Posted by AMC
Bilt- It sounds like that gun is a pre-2013 model 97. The 97 was updated in summer 2013 to resolve the issues you complain of.

My understanding of it was that the magazine follower, feed ramp and chamber were changed to feed hollow points more reliably and not make the magazine so hard to load. The grips were also changed to a much thinner aluminum, just to thin out the grip a little. As for your gun, it may get better as the recoil and magazine springs break in.

If you really do like that gun but can't get used to its flaws, you could trade it in for a newer 97.

It is. I checked the receipt and I bought it in late 2012. (It doesn't seem like it was that long ago). The gun feeds fine. (At least with 230 Gr. FMJ ammo). I never had a stovepipe or jam of any kind. The problem is how tight the last 2 rounds fit into the magazine. As soon as I put them in, I knew the gun was going to have a difficult time feeding them. I love the older thicker wood grips supplied with this weapon, because I have large hands. (A Glock 21 fits me just right). While many feel like it's the equivalent of holding the wrong end of a baseball bat. So I'm very happy with the ergonomics of the gun. As I mentioned the trigger was fine straight from the box, and got even better after a few hundred rounds. A nice crisp 4 or 5 pound break with very little take up. Just right for a service pistol.

The whole lousy guide rod issue has been resolved. So I'm left with a 10 round gun that can only reliably fire 8 rounds..... For now. I agree with you about that possibly improving over time. After I got home and cleaned everything up, I loaded all of my magazines that I have for this gun, (and my IWI .45 "Baby Eagle"), to full capacity. I'll let them sit like that for several months, then crank this thing up again and see if the feeding issue resolves itself. I'm minimally optimistic, because I've never been one to believe that springs sitting in a compressed state relax over time. It is usually constant compressing and relaxing that causes this. So we'll see. I'm hoping I'm wrong. If not I can live with an 8 round .45 ACP range toy. I've got at least a dozen 1911's to keep it company in that department.
 
You might give CZ USA a call about the magazines, because my 97B magazines hold 10 just fine and aren't hard to load.

When is the "test target" dated just out of curiosity?
 
Originally Posted by DuckRyder
You might give CZ USA a call about the magazines, because my 97B magazines hold 10 just fine and aren't hard to load.

When is the "test target" dated just out of curiosity?


I would have to dig it up. Like I said, I bought the gun in 2012. So give or take it's around 6 years old. And it is definitely an older model. All the new models come with the thinner Aluminum grips. Perhaps that is when they made modifications to the magazines as well. I could take a chance and buy a couple of new one's from Greg Cote. Of the 4 that I currently have, 2 I bought with my IWI "Baby Desert Eagle". Which I purchased well before the CZ-97B. And the other 2 came with both pistols. (1 each). All give the same trouble when loaded with 10 rounds. So most likely if they did modify the magazines, they did so well after I came into possession of the guns and magazines I currently have. I will shoot an E-Mail off to CZ, and see what they have to say. It can't hurt, that's for sure.
 
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