Marushin M9 Dolphin--firing problems

Hello all--I am somewhat of a newbie--just started collecting Modelguns last year for my zombie project. I have a "decent" understanding of the guns now. I had one last shoot to do, and the gal that was acting dropped BOTH of my Dolphins. They both worked great before the drops. I took them apart completely, and couldn't find a hint of anything being broken or cracked. The only ODD thing is that BOTH guns have a VERY VERY tight firing pin now. It seems like the pin does not move freely at all-perhaps the spring is all jumbled up in there now? When I pull the trigger-the round is in the chamber, and the hammer hits the pin, but nothing happens. HOWEVER....if I put a dead cap in the cartridge (to lessen the space the detonator has to go in the cartridge in order to ignite the cap)...then the cartridge fires and ejects---but to a fault--pulling the slide back to chamber the round makes it go off instantly, without even pulling the trigger. Once again--I find it VERY strange that BOTH guns suffered the same fate--they both worked GREAT before the drops. Any idea what may be the culprit?I even went so far as to taking out the firing block from one of the slides, and inspected it--the spring is wrapped around the firing pin, but I can't tell if that's the problem or not. There seems to be no way to actually get inside of the block to take out the pin and spring. Any help would be VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!! Thanks guys!!

Trevor

Hi Trevor,

It is strange that both of your Dolphins are behaving the same way after being dropped.
Bad enough when ONE starts playing up, but TWO...

The firing block in my Marushin Dolphin is glued onto the slide at the factory, it's moulded as one piece too encasing the firing pin and spring so it can't be "got at"
Mine broke very soon after buying the gun (new) so a new slide had to be sourced. The firing block had cracked in two, falling apart to expose the spring and pin.

Have you checked the Safety Selector switch Looking at the firing pin from the rear of the gun, the hammer strikes a short, top hat shaped pin (part #27) located in a drum (part #5) that turns with the safety switch. *Note the drawing is of WaShan's Beretta but the parts indicated are identical to the Marushin*

Turning this disengages the short pin from the main one in the firing block. If, possibly, the safety switch has moved just enough during the drop to turn the drum, perhaps the two pins have jammed together.
This may account for the stiff movement and the fact the gun fires as soon as the slide travels forward

Hi Cerwyn!! yah, the way it "appears" to me, is that the hammer strikes piece #27, and that piece is supposed to hit the firing pin, which then strikes the bottom of the cartridge...
but the problem is that the firing pin doesn't move...it seems very very tight. So the hammer strikes #27, but nothing happens. When I try to move the pin manually, it does so,
but it takes a LOT of force in order to move it. It does not appear to be broken at all. Have you, or anybody else heard of this? maybe the spring is all messed up around the pin?
Katsuro said Marushin is out of slides, and he does not know when there will be more available, and Francky is checking on availability...so I may need to try and fix this. Thanks for any help!!

Hi Trev,

Have you tried removing the safety switch with part #27 from the slide? Am I right thinking you have but the firing pin in the block is still
really tight?

Is the safety switch easy to turn from Safe to Fire?
If it is not, perhaps #27 has shifted inwards slightly, forcing against the main firing pin. The Safety drum and #27 only need be slightly out of line
to start fouling up and jamming.

If both your models are experiencing the same problem, it's one helluva coincidence and there must be an easy sollution here.

The firing block should be glued in firmly into the slide, is it loose and moved any?

Hey Cerwyn--yah I thought maybe it was the safety selector at first too...I moved it all over the place--and that doesn't seem to be the
issue--I believe it is the actual pin with the spring inside of the firing block. I also thought it very strange that both guns are suffering the same fate.
On my other Models, the pin moves freely...but with both Dolphins the firing pin seems REALLY tight--like it takes a lot of force to move it. When I
reassemble the guns, everything seems normal.. but as soon as I pull the trigger, the hammer drops, and nothing happens. I tested the caps-and it's
not the caps, because they work fine inmy GM7. So yah...I am at a bit of a loss. Does anyone have a Dolphin, and can you tell me if that firing pin moves
freely inside the block? Thanks for any help guys!

Hello again Cerwyn--I think i have indeed found the culprit...it does in fact appear to be piece #27 on BOTH guns. I replaced it with a longer screw, and whatyaknow...the gun fired 5 cartridges in a row (that's all I had to test with.)
Soooo...my guess is that the piece was fouled up not by the actress dropping the guns...but by dry firing them. the ends of piece 27 were both pretty badly chewed up on both guns. Just enough to stop the hammer from striking it.
Tonight I plan on replacing 27 with the screws in BOTH guns, and see how they fire. The only other issue is that (and this was always a problem on both of my Dolphins)the trigger does not always operate correctly. It seems that sometimes
the slide pulls the hammer back, but when I pull the trigger, there is no click, or action. So I took the slide off, and it looks as if part 56 and 10 (I think these are the ones--on the right side, just inside the handle) keep getting fouled up. Any suggestions on that?

Guys - great detective work! :-D

Hi Trev,

First of all well done everyone on sorting that!
I had the same problem with Marushin M9 Dolphin as you describe in last post with no action when trigger pulled,
after many hours the problem turned out to be pin 39 was bent in the center !! (this was on a new factory built
unfired gun) this had the effect of when it was inside tube 37 it caused sear parts 9 and 10 to "lean"away from
each other at the point of slight bend and trigger bar part 13 at rear was not engaging as it should sometimes,
funny thing was that when it happened if you pressed on the top of right grip (slitly appling pressure to rear of
trigger bar it would work OK. At first I thought it was trigger bar to short at rear, but as I said it was just the
VERY slight miss allignment of 9 & 10 caused by the bend!

may be what you have maybe not:0 best of luck

awesome--thank you for that suggestion...I'm going to check that out when I am done with work!
I love the forum here--everyone is SO helpful!!

...oh yah..out of curiosity, how did you fix your problem--can the pin be "straightened"..or
did you have to get a new part?

Hi
Bend was so slight that pin was tapped straight and tube followed pins new shape as tube is soft part:)

Fantastic, great to hear your Dolphins are now sorted

There's one lesson for us all too, NEVER dry fire these modelguns as damage is almost inevitable.

The firing pins, including #27, are ABS plastic and don't take much to damage, as you've seen. If I were you I'd ask Francky or Shazhib to get you the correct #27 (in ABS) just in case the screw you're using now flattens the firing pin during firing.

I had a look at my Marushin Dolphin last night. Pushing the firing pin by using #27 was easy, there's only about 1mm maybe 2mm of movement anyway but it proved easy and light to push. Spring pressure pushed it back.
I've an old slide here too so tried pushing the firing pin in the block. The Safety switch has been removed from this slide so #27 is not fitted. The firing pin seemed really stiff, but allowing a little silicone oil to run down into the block and pushing the pin back and forth quickly slackened it off again.

Interesting to read about your trigger not always functioning, mine's done that too ! The pin that the trigger pivots on, I'm not sure which one it is on the drawing above, loosens and works its way out and through the frame just enough to let the trigger tilt to one side.
This then missaligns everything as JohnnyV describes.
A gentle push back into place sorts mine out.

I'm really pleased we got your Dolphins sorted, this is exactly what the forums' about, everybody helping each other out. Perfect

Thanks again guys!! Both Dolphins are firing again!! And JohnnyV--thanks so much for the suggestion--that's EXACTLY what it was--pins were bent in BOTH guns!! Very happy to have such nice guys offering help around here!!

Your more than welcome:)

Thanks again guys! And Cerwyn--I have put in an order for a couple new slides too! I am finding that you can never be "too prepared" --especially when using these for filming! Can't wait to share some vids with you guys! I have just completed a couple trailers, so I will upload them soon!

It's a pleasure to help Trevor

Spare parts are always worth having, especially for HWABS models
Spare slides will have the firing block glued in place but otherwise they are bare. Safety switch, that part #27 etc, fire selector switch and extractor will need transferring over from your original.
Could be worth ordering spare switches too so you can have a near complete slide to swap over quickly should you need it when filming.

Looking forwards to your video footage

Hey guys--ONE last question ob the Marushin Dolphin---I have the same exact problem with the magazine getting stuck that is talked about a couple posts down. Have you guys had any luck finding a fix for it? I read Katsuro's fix in the very last post, but I am not exactly sure what he meant when he said to turn the cartridges so many degrees--perhaps a fast drawing if anyone could? Or please let me know if anyone else found a fix for this--thanks guys!!

Hi Trevor

Having experienced the same problem with the slide lock lever jamming underneath the mag follower myself, reading shazhib's "fix" again made a lot more sense.

It's the magazine spring that needs twisting, not the cartridges.

Strip the mag, take out the spring and twist the top couple of coils around by about 70 degrees. When you reassemble the mag', the twisted coils force the follower over to one side closing up the gap and therefore stopping the slide lock slipping underneath.

aaahh hhhhaaaa!!! Now I get it!! Perfect!! Thanks to Katsuro for finding the fix-and thank you Cerwyn!!! I will make the adjustment when I get home tonight!