Replacing recoil spring on Hammerli X-Esse SF

Starting to get FTF on certain ammo. Problem appears to be weak recoil spring. Pull slide cannot figure out how to remove the guide rod. See a hole in the rear section. Also read where someone said to rotate guide rod 180 degrees. 
  Have not figured out how to rotate the guide rod. Does not appear to be rotatable. 
  See where there is a widening of gap in frame. Have not be able work the knob through this.

you just need a small screwdriver or pick to rotate the guide rod so that it will come out of that small gap...the end of the rod is oblong so you are able to turn the rod

That is eating me up. The spring seems to rotate the end back. Using the hole through the rear of the guide rod to determine this figure I will not be able to see through the hole if turned 90 degrees.
What is the function of the hole in the rod?

What i do to remove the spring is use a small pick to retract and hold the spring. This allows me to rotate and start the removal of the rod.. actually take the rod out first then release the spring to wedge it out.

never used the hole but i bet it was designed to be used to hold the rod at the correct position to remove it.

Any pictures of the guide rod removed? In old posts I found a few pictures of the spring being worn down by cycling of the slide so it's inevitable to replace it as a PM or when it starts malfunctioning. (When I did Larry's sear mod I couldn't figure out how to remove the recoil spring and gave up.)

Take Dental pick or small Hex key pull spring back. Rotate and slide Guide rod out the key hole. It is easy, way easier then doing the hammer spring, which turned out to be not that bad.

picture of the guide head.. football shaped.. normal position in the spring  slot would have the football pointing up(longest portion).. by twisting it 180 degrees now the shortest portion will be horizontal. this will allow you to  remove it from the slot and then the spring.. simply reverse the head position when you install it.

as I suspected, the hole in the rod will be visible when the head it in the correct position for removal

There must be damage to the head on mine.Tried 0,90, 180, 270, and get back to zero. You are correct, if the hole in guide rod is visible the rod is turned to remove. Mine just will not come outside the frame very far.
The long axis looks like it should be vertical to catch the slide. The hole in the rod should not be visible after reinstall.
I inserted a dental pick in that hole in guide rod to work the guide rod while attempting to remove. Stopped before I damaged the rod with no replacement.
Going to live with it for now.

Its made from abs so it should be a bit flexable. Larry did made a steel replacement at one time.. you can get standard replacements from redfeather as well as springs. Walther USA also carries parts

The rod will rotate into the vertical orientation as you use the gun, there's no need to mess with it except to get it in the right position when removing.

It's a tight fit, and removing/inserting the spring is even tighter. Basically, once you get it all stuffed into the slot, don't mess with it.

If the head of the rod isn't coming out, it's probably peened over from the slide stop (at the top of the trigger guard) being out of place or broken. When that happens, the crossbar at the front of the slide pushes the rod too far to the rear under recoil. In that case, the rod gets sandwiched between the slide and the back of the slot, and it gets squished. Dig it out (it's plastic) and replace it, after correcting the slide stop issue of course. It won't happen if that is intact.

TicTocer wrote:Starting to get FTF on certain ammo. Problem appears to be weak recoil spring. Pull slide cannot figure out how to remove the guide rod. See a hole in the rear section. Also read where someone said to rotate guide rod 180 degrees. 
  Have not figured out how to rotate the guide rod. Does not appear to be rotatable. 
  See where there is a widening of gap in frame. Have not be able work the knob through this.

Have you tried just cleaning the chamber with a 25 caliber brush & solvent.

Yes, I clean every 200- 250 rounds. I have started rolling up a 20 cm strip of patch soaked with No 9 and inserting into chamber. Let sit for a while then pushing out end of barrel with bamboo skewer. Then cleaning chamber with 0.25 brass brush.
But I may have created this issue. I have a 2020 X-Esse Long and a 2021 X-Esse IPSC SF. Mounted a dot on the IPSC. Preferred the rear sight on the IPSC and rather than swap sights I swapped slides. I need to look real close at both slides to see if this buggered up the guide rod. Doubt it, there seems to be one part number for slides.
The parts were an education. Called Walther to order a few bits. They sent a schematic with part numbers. But after a long call said the parts are reserved for warranty work and would not sell guide rod of a couple springs. Numrich had the guide rods. But little else.
Gave me a chance to figure out the new Red Feather website. A 1000% improvement over the old. The brand sorting does not work. Would be great if you did not have to view all 36 pages of parts to locate ones for a specific model. But leaves them easy ways to make improvements to make ordering easier.