Problem with Old Army

[revolverman357]

I have a blued old army 7.5" and when the hammer is in the first cocking notch, the cylinder does not spin free as it did before I cleaned it. I have taken it apart twice and put it back together, but the cyclinder will not rotate freely. If you cock it all the way it works fine and indexes.

It looks like the pawl is out a bit too far to let the cylinder rotate, the spring is there and so is the pin. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Rachen]

Just checking, did you replace the pawl plunger/spring correctly. That little thing is easy to lose if your not careful.

 

[revolverman357]

Yes, I checked it twice. Is it possible I need a new spring? The spring is way down into the hole and the plunger just falls out.

 

[Rachen]

Whoa, I think I see something here. Does the plunger fall out when the pawl is in place, or when there is no pawl in the pawl channel?

When I disassembled my Ruger for the first time to clean it, the plunger fits right in, the plunger head contacts the pawl, and when you push the whole thing in, a small bit of the plunger spring is left sticking out of the frame. When you put the grip frame back on, the surface of the grip frame is supposed to compress the plunger spring into the cylinder frame for an exact fit. If it falls out, is short, and there is no compression on the pawl plunger spring when you re-fit the grip frame, there is definitely a problem here.

 

[revolverman357]

When I remove the grip frame the plunger falls out with the pawl in. Maybe I assembled it wrong, Are saying that the plunger goes in first then the spring, so the spring is against the top of the grip frame?

 

[rcmodel]

Something is out of place.

Any chance you took the hammer spring & plunger out and mixed the two springs up with the pawl spring & plunger?

Anyway:
Assemble the hammer & pawl in the frame and put the screw in, then drop the plunger in the hole, followed by the spring.
The rear of the spring should now be sticking out of the rear frame flat.

Now, carefully compress it as you put the grip frame back in place and get the screws started.

It should now work if it was working before.


rcmodel

 

[Rachen]

Something is out of place.

Any chance you took the hammer spring & plunger out and mixed the two springs up with the pawl spring & plunger?

Yep, I was about to suggest that too.

The plunger goes in first, think of the plunger spring assembly like a comet. The plunger is the head and the spring is the tail. Once the round head of the plunger contacts the pawl, a little bit of the spring should be sticking out of the cylinder frame. Once it looks like that, it should be correct.

 

[revolverman357]

I did not remove the hammer plunger and spring, But I think I assembled the pawl plunger and spring in reverse order. I will check and reassemble and post when I am done.

 

[revolverman357]

Thanks for the help, I appreciate your quick responses.
I disassembled the gun and I did have the spring and plunger installed in reverse order. Thanks again for the help. Now I can go shooting again tomorrow!

 

[Rachen]

Congrats Revolverman357!!!

Now tomorrow, go enjoy deliverin' the lead to the target the old way

 

[rcmodel]

Just glad to be here!


rcmodel

 

[revolverman357]

I even had the disassembly instructions in front of me
The people on this forum have bailed me out several times in the last couple of years. Glad you're all here