guide rod

First post. Yesterday I field stripped my new, unfired Defender. The slide has always been very difficult to rack, and the slide stop was difficult to remove. I thought, 'tight is a good place to start," and wasn't overly concerned. During reassembly I noticed the recoil spring guide rod didn't...

I am going to purchase a nice used Colt M1991A Compact Model. It does not have an owner's manual that comes with it, and I had a terribly hard time field stripping it in the store the other day. Is it possible to replace the full length guide rod assembly with a more traditional one? Is there a...