It dawned on me, after some time and sweat, that the extractor pivot pin that also holds firing pin is rounded on one end.  You tap it out from the inside (underside) of the slide and on what is the flat end of the pin.  I re-assembled in the same way and found lining up the extractor hole with the pin was tough, although I finally got it done.

Then: my Aha! moment.  When replacing the pin, insert it's round end from underside of the slide.  The rounded end of the pin, which is supposed to protrude at the top of the slide, will be more forgiving finding the extractor's hole (than the flat end).  This, of course, came to me about 11:30 at night and after I had toiled over replacing the pin, flat end first from the top of the slide.


According to FBI statistics from 2011, there were 323 homicides committed with a rifle of any kind but 496 with a hammer or a club.  WSJ, Feb., 2013
In April, 2009, The President declared that reducing the US nuclear stockplies: “will give us a greater moral authority to say to Iran, don’t develop a nuclear weapon: to say to Korea, don’t proliferate nuclear weapons.” WSJ, 4/9/13