Detailed Disassembly and Reassembly of the CZ-82 Pistol

The CZ m. 82 is a very popular and inexpensive double-action blow-back pistol, chambered in 9x18 Makarov. Just about all of them come with a damaged painted finish; to refinish the painted parts, it's necessary to almost completely disassemble the pistol.

There are 55 parts, not including the magazine, and disassembly is a little scary because of the many parts, including fifteen different pins. But it comes almost completely apart with only a screwdriver, a light hammer, and a couple of punches. Improvised punches can be made by filing flat the ends of nails. The two grip panel inserts (51) aren't there on a m. 82; the barrel (12), barrel pin, trigger bar disconnector (24), trigger bar disconnector rivet (25), and the steel ball (22) need not be removed.

In the following discussion, left, right, top, bottom, forward, rear, front, back, up, and down are from the pistol's point of view.

It's best to disassemble the m. 82 in a certain sequence. This worked for me:

Remove the magazine and clear the chamber. I hate it when I forget that part.

Slide. Pull down the front end of the trigger guard (it won't come down if the magazine is in place). Cock the hammer and pull the slide all the way back, up, and off the rear, and let the recoil spring pull the slide forward and off the barrel. The recoil spring slides off.

Grip screws and grips. The grips come off easier when the pistol is cocked and on "safe". Then release the safety, hold the hammer, pull the trigger, and let the hammer down easy.

Firing pin. Press the firing pin (8) in to release the firing pin stop (10), and slide the stop down and out. If the firing pin stop is tight, pry it with a small screwdriver and tap it a bit with a soft punch.

Be careful; the spring will send the firing pin out smartly. Just hold your thumb over it while you slide off the firing pin stop so it won't fly away when it's released.

Extractor. The hole that contains the extractor pin (6) may be swaged at the bottom, inside the slide, thus the pin should go up, not down. Use a 1/16-inch punch to drive the extractor pin up and out. The extractor (5) and spring (7) will fall out when you remove the punch.

Sights. Drive out the front sight roll pin (3) from either side, and tap out the front sight with a small punch. Drift out the rear sight from left to right.

Trigger guard. Push out the trigger guard pivot pin (39) and the trigger guard falls out.

Magazine release. Press the magazine catch (44) against a piece of wood to balance the pressure of the magazine catch spring (45) and slide out the magazine catch lever pin (47). The pin has a groove in it so you can pull it with the end of a punch.

Now all the magazine catch parts (43, 44, 45, 46) fall out.

Slide stop. If the trigger guard latch pin (40) is a roll pin (hollow split pin) then just drive it out, and the slide stop spring (42) and the slide stop (41) will fall out. Note that the spring isn't shaped like in the diagram. It curves over the top of the trigger guard latch pin.

If the trigger guard latch pin (40) is a solid pin, then it has a slot for the slide stop spring and it's smaller at one end so it only goes out one way. Lift (or press) the slide stop spring from the slot and the pin slides out. If you just drive out either the trigger guard latch pin or the slide stop, the spring will be destroyed.

Safety. Drive out the pin (37); the safety comes off. The pin has a groove in the center so it can be retained by a dent in the frame at the center. You can see the dent under the hammer.

Press the safety latch (35) in against its spring (36) and tip it out. The safety latch bears against the mysterious steel ball (22) which is swaged into the frame. If the safety doesn't work easily, the latch is probably rough. The ball is harder and less likely to wear out.

Main spring plug. Press in the main spring plug (33) to balance the pressure of the main spring (32) and push out the pin (6).

The main spring plug and main spring will come out; the main spring strut (31) doesn't come out yet.

Disconnector. Pull out the pin (23) and the disconnector (19) comes out from the top. The pin may have either a round or a square head.

Trigger. Slide out the trigger pivot pin (16) to the left (it's held in by the slide stop). Wiggle the trigger down until you can see the trigger bar pin (18). Pay attention to how the trigger spring fits into holes in the trigger bar and trigger. Now the trigger bar pin (18) can be pushed out and the trigger (14) and trigger spring (15) come out.

Trigger bar. Before you pull it out, notice how the trigger bar (17) engages with the sear, the automatic safety, and the hammer lever.

If the trigger bar doesn't come out easily, it will hang up on the trigger bar disconnector. Work it to where it almost passes the trigger bar disconnector and then encourage it a little by carefully prying it forward and down. It will "pop" out.

Ejector and Automatic Safety. The frame may be swaged on both sides to retain the ejector pin (6), or the pin may just slide out. (It might have red paint on the ends to indicate the safety's "fire" position.) Once the pin is out, wiggle the ejector (20) up and out with the automatic safety (21) that's held inside it on the ejector pin. Now you can see the hammer lever (28) and the sear (29).

Hammer pin. Push out the hammer pin (27). The hammer (26) and hammer lever (28) are now free to move around a bit to allow the sear some wiggle room; they don't come out just yet.

Sear. Pay attention to how the sear spring (30) bears down against the sear (29) and up against the auto safety inside the ejector that you already removed. Release the hammer from the sear and tip the hammer all the way forward to get it out of the way of the sear. Then pull out the sear pivot pin (23) and remove the sear and sear spring downward.

Hammer. Notice how the hammer lever slides in a groove in the frame. Now the hammer and hammer lever will come out together, and the mainspring strut falls out.

Hammer. The hammer and hammer lever go together like this.

Drop in the hammer strut, and then slide in the hammer and hammer lever from the front. (The hammer pin is installed after the sear is in place.)

Sear. With the hammer forward and slid back a little, the sear comes up from underneath.

The sear pin is halfway in to hold the sear in place.

The sear spring goes in with the bent end resting on the top of the sear; then the sear pin can go the rest of the way in.

Ejector. With the sear spring in position as shown above, press the ejector down on top.

Automatic safety. The automatic safety fits under the ejector and turns on the ejector pin; it prevents the hammer from striking the firing pin unless the trigger is pulled. It can be dropped more or less into place...

... and wiggled into position.

At this point you can see the top end of the sear spring through the hole in the top of the ejector. But the top of the sear spring shouldn't be in the hole; it should bear up against a notch in the automatic safety. Later, we'll use the hole to get the sear spring properly engaged with the automatic safety. (Every part of a good machine has a purpose, even this little hole.)

Hammer pin. Line up the hammer, and slide in the hammer pin with the small end to the left.

The small end protrudes on the left side.

The automatic safety is probably what makes this little pistol "scary" to put together. But it's not so hard if you know how.

Use a small straight punch to press down the end of the sear spring. The 3/32 (2.5 mm) punch in this picture was too fat; a 1/16 (1.5 mm) punch works.

As you hold down the end of the spring with the punch, get the tab on the back of the automatic safety into the notch in the hammer (tipping the muzzle up helps), and use the hammer to push the automatic safety forward over the top of the sear spring. Nudge the sear spring toward the right as you do this so it comes up on the automatic safety.

Hold the hammer forward while you slide a pointed fat toothpick in the ejector pin hole to line up and hold everything together. (The disconnector pin is temporarily installed to help hold the ejector in place.)

Now you see the automatic safety through the hole in the ejector, and not the sear spring.

Before you replace the toothpick with the ejector pin, test the sear and automatic safety.

With the toothpick holding the automatic safety in its proper position, pull the hammer back and see if you can feel spring pressure as you push the bottom tab on the sear toward the rear.

The sear moves a little and springs back forward.

Then test to see that the automatic safety is properly engaged with the sear spring: With the hammer held back, press the bottom of the automatic safety toward the rear; you should feel spring pressure as the back of the automatic safety tips up.

In this picture, the old guy is pushing on the automatic safety with his right index finger.

If you feel and see the automatic safety working against the spring, then congratulate yourself. If not, start over.

Trigger and trigger bar. Here's how the trigger and trigger bar go together. The spring fits into holes in both the trigger and the trigger bar.

Here's the other side.

We'll put it together again later, inside the pistol.

Trigger bar. Besides the automatic safety, this is another place where the m. 82 gets its reputation for being "hard" to assemble. Notice how there are three devices with tabs that engage the trigger bar: the sear, the automatic safety, and the hammer lever. The trigger bar goes in front of the sear tab, in between the two tabs of the automatic safety, and behind the tab on the hammer lever. (The protrusion at the back end of the trigger bar fits up into the automatic safety.)

If the hammer is back, hold it, release the sear, and let the hammer go all the way forward. Now with the frame upside-down, the trigger bar just falls into place like magic.

Check that the trigger bar engages the sear, automatic safety, and hammer lever correctly, and that the back end of the trigger bar is all the way up in the frame. Now the front end of the trigger bar will hang down far enough to complete the next step.

Trigger. With the trigger bar positioned so the hole where it connects to the trigger is just visible below the frame, use a pointed toothpick to help align and assemble the trigger bar, trigger, and trigger spring.

Again we use the slave pin trick. Slide in the trigger bar pin to replace the toothpick. Consider that this operation requires you to move four different pieces into their proper places all at once; having done this, you're now a certified mechanical genius.

The trigger bar pin goes in flush.

Position the trigger assembly in the frame, checking again to see that the trigger bar properly engages the sear, the automatic safety, and the hammer lever. Insert a straight punch through the trigger pivot pin hole from the right side and align the trigger in the frame.

Replace the punch with the trigger pivot pin, which only goes in from the left.

Here you can see the trigger pivot pin replacing the punch.

With the trigger pivot pin in place, the trigger, sear, auto safety, and hammer should work together. But don't allow the hammer to fall; it will strike the sear and bugger it up. (This applies any time you have the slide off.)

Slide stop. This shows the trigger guard latch pin, the slide stop spring, and the slide stop, without the trigger in place, so you can see them better. However, the trigger assembly and the trigger pivot pin have to go in before the slide stop, because the slide stop holds in the trigger pivot pin.

Install the slide stop and the slide stop spring, and then install the trigger guard latch pin while you hold the slide stop spring up so it will be positioned above the trigger guard latch pin, and in the slot if it's a solid pin.

You will have to press the spring up to get the pin under it. (The pistol is upside-down in this picture, so down is up and over is under.)

The picture shows the hard way to install the latch pin if it's a roll pin. The easy way is to drive it in from the left until it protrudes inside the frame just far enough to hook the spring over it, and then drive it in the rest of the way. Before you begin to drive it in, orient the split side of the split pin to the rear; then the trigger guard latch will slip over the smooth side.

Trigger guard. A space for the slide stop spring is milled out in the side of the trigger guard. The trigger guard holds the slide stop spring in its proper place against the inside of the frame. Be sure the slide stop spring is flat against the frame as you install the trigger guard so it doesn't get buggered. If it's hard to get the holes to line up for the pin, engage the trigger guard in the latch (the completely assembled position) and pull it back and down like in the picture.