Introduction
My Hungarian-made FEG PA63 in 9mm Makarov caliber is my summertime everyday carry (EDC) gun.  It is small, lightweight, easy to conceal and carry, and packs a bit more punch than the .380 Auto (9mm Kurz).  Hornady makes their Critical Defense cartridge in 9mm Makarov which is my chosen defense cartridge for this gun.  I have two articles on improving the PA63 and correcting ammo feeding problems (refer to my articles Improving the FEG PA63 9x18 Makarov and PA-63Feeding Problems.)  Now it’s time to continue the improvements and do a little trigger work.

I significantly lightened the double-action trigger pull by installing a 19-pound Walther PP hammer spring.  Wolff Gunsprings is now selling hammer and recoil spring packs for the FEG PA63 9x18 Makarov only.  These are available directly from Wolff

https://www.gunsprings.com/FEG/PA-63/cID1/mID20/dID103

but are also available from MidwayUSA.com. https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1004183399?pid=437714.  

I haven’t tested these springs, but I believe the PA63 9mm Makarov would need the lighter hammer spring and heavier recoil spring as I installed in my own pistol. 

WARNING:  These Wolff PA63 spring kits are only for the 9x18 Makarov caliber, NOT the .380 Auto caliber.

Disassembly

The PA63 is an exact copy of the Walther PP so I referred to books and YouTube videos on how to disassemble the Walther PP.  The most difficult part to remove was the pesky U-shaped sear or cocking lever/cocking piece as it is called in the schematics.  This is where most of the work needs to be performed, so it must be removed from the frame.  There are some things you need to be careful of during disassembly:

1.      The ejector has a small spring on top that sits in a groove in the frame.  Use a small, thin, flat-blade screwdriver to depress the spring and lever it out of the frame.  Now you can pull the ejector from the frame.  Don’t lose the spring!

2.      Remove the trigger pivot pin first before removing the trigger bar.

3.      The cocking piece is probably the most difficult to remove; at least it was on my PA63.  Here’s the trick:

a.      Knock off the left rear corner of the cocking piece.  I used a fine sanding drum on my Dremel tool while the piece was in the gun.  This makes it easier to remove.

b.      Remove the two pivot pins from either side of the cocking piece.

c.      Rotate the cocking piece so the left side falls inside the hammer pin opening.

d.      Looking at the right side of the frame, position the cocking piece so it is at the bottom of the kidney-shaped cut in the frame.

e.      Rotate the cocking piece to the left and up so the left leg clears the kidney-shaped cut and you can remove the cocking piece from the frame.  Knocking off the corner should make this easy.

Springs

If your gun is like mine, it was probably built with a truck suspension spring installed in the magazine release.  I replaced it with a 1/4” length of 0.118 diameter spring from Brownells spring kit #69 025-069-000.  I used a Cratex tip to polish the inside of the magazine release hole in the frame.  I applied SFL-0 grease to the outside of the magazine release, then reinstalled it in the frame with the lighter spring.  This made the magazine release easier to manipulate, but still held a magazine in place.

To reduce the trigger pull I bent the trigger return spring 90-degrees to the rear of the trigger as shown in the above photo.  Don’t go too far or the trigger will not return properly, and the trigger bar/disconnector will not function.  My trigger return spring required that I move it 90-degrees.  Yours may require less, but it should be bent to the final position shown above.  The shiny area on the left side of the trigger was caused by a burr in the frame.  I took a flat jeweler’s file and removed the burr.  The burr was causing the trigger to drag which affects the trigger pull.

Sear Work
Makarov.com has a write-up on how to perform a trigger job on the PA63, which was my primary source; here is the link:  http://makarov.com/tech.html.

You should see a wear mark on the top of the cocking piece (left arrow above).  This is where the hammer dog rides in double-action mode.  This area and the underside of the hammer dog need to be polished.  Use a ceramic stick or fine Arkansas stone.

On the underside of the cocking piece is the single-action sear ledge.  I first polished this ledge with a fine ceramic stone.  The stone is square so I would not change the angle.  The ledge on my pistol measured 0.038-inches, which is why the single-action trigger pull had so much creep.  I stoned the top of the ledge to reduce it to 0.020-inches.

I reassembled the pistol using SFL-0 grease on the magazine release, cocking piece single and double-action sears, and on the slide rails.  I lubricated all pins with FG 68 oil (refer to my article The Search for the Perfect Firearms Lubricants), and wiped down the gun with a gun rag impregnated with FG 68 oil.

Results
The single-action trigger breaks at 3-lbs, 10-oz., and the double-action trigger breaks at 9-lbs, 13-oz.  The double-action trigger pull is very smooth, but the single-action still has a bit of creep which means the sear ledge could be reduced a bit farther, but I think I’ll leave it alone.  The magazine drops with a firm, but not heavy press of the magazine release.  Overall, I am pleased with the continued improvements to my FEG PA-63 9mm Makarov pistol.

A word of caution here; you may have an original PP, PPK or PPKS or a clone built by any one of several manufacturers.  Some of the springs and parts pictured here for my FEG PA63 may be a bit different for your gun so work slowly and carefully.

Addendum 9/27/19

I wanted to try fabricating new sear rivets (cocking piece pivot pins) as suggested by the Makarov.com article.  My pins fit loosely in the frame and would fall out without spring pressure on the cocking piece.  Don’t ask me how much swearing I did during reassembly each time a pin fell out, rolled off my worktable, and fell onto the floor!

I carefully measured the existing pins, the holes in the cocking piece, and the holes in the frame.  I wanted the pins to fit snuggly in the frame but not require that they be press-fit, and still have the cocking piece rotate freely.  After measuring, the new pins would have the dimensions shown above.  I took a piece of 1/4“ round steel stock and turned the two pins on my lathe.  I cleaned and cold-blued the pins with Brownell’s Oxpho-Blue.

Because the hole in the frame was the same size as the hole in the cocking piece, I couldn’t get a snug fit in the frame.  So, I used a trick I learned working on 1911 hammer pins.

I took the large taper alignment pin from the alignment pin set I purchased from Brownells #080-645-000, chucked it in my drill, and turned the end against a rotating cutoff wheel in my Dremel tool until the end came to a point.

I installed one pin through the cocking piece and into the frame and set the head of the pin on a steel surface; I used a small anvil, but a vise jaw will work.  I put the sharpened alignment pin through the hole in the other side of the frame to punch the center of the installed pin.  This spread the pin so it would fit tightly in the frame, but the cocking piece still rotated freely.  I removed that pin with a punch, then staked the other pin in place, then installed the first pin.  Now both pins fit snuggly into the frame, but the cocking piece still rotates freely.

Staking the pins changed the amount of take-up in the double-action trigger, but did not change the trigger pull weight.  At least those pins won’t fall out during disassembly/reassembly anymore!