[piniongear]

I have a real mess on my hands and need some help. I just bought a Model 70 243 and the owner told me that a Jewell had been on the gun, but that it was removed before the sale and the safety does not work.
I bought the gun and shot it today for the first time. It shoots great, but the safety is frozen in the firing position. It looks like someone did a rough grinding job on the cocking piece. (I think that is what it is called)
I have another Coyote that is in new factory condition and I am using it to compare with the broken one. I think (or rather know) I have made a great mistake. I depressed the button on the side of the bolt and started to unscrew the end. Well, you know what happened. Everything went forward and the end screwed about a quarter turn and is locked in place. It must be that the firing spring is not compressed any longer, because the end of the firing pin is sticking through the hole in the bolt face.
Is there anyway I can get the spring compressed again so that I can put things back as they were? I took my new rifle bolt apart, but of course I was able to position the safety in the straight out position on that one before I pressed in the button and unscrewed it, and the bolt unscrewed without a problem. Since I could not get my safety lever to move off the fire position on the bolt with the bad safety, knowing better, I did it anyway. Now I have a mess.........pg

[DnPRK]

That has happened to me dozens of times. I place the bolt against the edge of a table and lean on it allowing my weight to help cock the spring, then twist the shroud to put the cocking piece back into it's notch.

[chris allen]

The rifle that has had the cocking piece ground needs to be worked on by a pro that understands model 70 safeties.

The cocking piece that has locked you need to pull the cocking piece back into the shroud until the safetey can be put in the middle position then it can be screwed into the bolt body as normal.

[piniongear]

I was sucessful in getting the safety lever to the safe (straight out) position. I took the firing pin & spring out of the bolt.
Then I was able to grab the firing pin with the grip of my left hand and pull it down to compress it enough to remove the 'C' clip retainer. This allowed me to see what the safety cam and firing pin groove looks like inside. The firing pin looked a bit roughed up.
My problem now is that I am having trouble compressing the spring enough to get the C clip retainer back into position.
Is there some trick I am missing, or is there a spring compresser made to do this? Right now I am working on what I could do to manufacture a home made compresser, but so far no luck. It is hard to grab the head of the spring to pull it down.........pg

[GeorgeR]

Here's what worked for me: I don't know if I can describe it without a picture. Take a piece of alum bar stock about 1/16x4hx2w. Drill a hole in it about in the middle that will allow the fp to go thru with about 1/8" clearance. Hacksaw the piece in half vertically. You now have two pieces with a half a hole on the left side piece and half a hole on the right sight piece. Put the two pieces back together and grip in bench vise with the hole showing. Push in the fp compressing the spring. The groove for the c clip will show on the other side. Put in the C clip. Take it out of the vise and separate the two alum pieces. Takes about five minutes to make. Great for us weaklings.

[piniongear]

To take care of my safety issue on my Win M70, I have found that I can buy a new firing pin and spring, along with a new cocking piece from Superior Shooting Systems, all for around a hundred bucks. They told me I need a smith to fit it.
Has anyone on the forum installed this item, or had it done? Thanks.....pg

[GeorgeR]

I just saw one on ebay for $42! new

[chris allen]

Any brand of firing pin you buy for the 70 will have to be fitted.the geometry between the trigger sear ,cocking piece and trigger varies from gun to gun ,and MUST BE FIT SO THE SAFETY works properly.Have this done by a pro who has done 70 safeties!

chris

[piniongear]

:)......I was able to fix the Coyote without going to a gunsmith:) Thanks GeorgeR for your help.
I bought a new firing pin and spring from Superior Shooting Systems in Canadian Texas......100 miles north of Amarillo. They also sell a replacement cocking piece which I bought.
Today I assembled the firing pin into the cocking piece. The firing pin screws into the cocking piece with 1/4-32 threads and then I drill a hole through the cocking piece and firing pin with a 3/32 bit and install the included pin to hold things together.
I had to fit the safety to the new cocking piece to make the safety function.. The old cocking piece had been butchered up by the previous owner who had tried to install a Jewell trigger and wound up having no working safety on the rifle.
My challenge was to remove the proper amount of metal from the cocking piece to enable the safety to go into place after the rifle was cocked.
To fit this piece I chucked up a 1/4 end mill cutter in the lathe headstock and put my Palmgren milling attachment on the tool post. By the time I had finished I had taken a .035 cut on the cocking piece. This cut was tangential to the side of the new firing pin, so unlike the original firing pin from Winchester which had cut half way through the firing pin, mine was a complete full rod of metal after I was done.
The safety went into place as smooth as a baby's butt. I now know a lot more about a Winchester M70 safety than I did a week ago.
Thanks to all for your help, and no thanks goes to the guys at the gunshops I visited here in Houston over the course of several days trying to get help. They were hopeless, to say the least.
I shall continue in my quest to fit my own barrel and action one of these days...........pg

[GeorgeR]

Good for you! Edison was right. Genius is 10% inspiration and 90% prespiration.