Yeah! Success. 3rd days a charm. Thanks for all the help guys. I put the rifle together today on the 3rd attempt. I took a couple days off. I'm posting to help those who run into the same problem. I fallowed the instructions given on another forum.
To Quote the Gun Digest Book of Firearms Assembly:
"Insert the lever assembly with the bolt in fully closed position, and with the bolt gear at the rearmost location in its track.
Insert the gear and lever cross pins, but do not drive them in place until the gear and bolt engagement is correct. There should be a very small space visible at the point indicated (Rear of the bolt head, front front of the bolt carrier) with the lever closed.
If the space is measurable... then the engagement must be readjusted.
To do this, pull the lever pin only, reposition the lever track on the gear until the bolt closure is correct. If it is too tight for full lever travel, back it off by one gear tooth."
Problem was, I just couldn't get it back to together. I felt something was in the way. I lucked out and tried something different.
I did the opposite. 1st) insert the lever pin to the point where it engages the gear assembly at it's attachment point but not to the point where it interferes with the placement of the lever itself. I put the pin in from the bottom.
2nd) The gear will not go to it's rearmost point until you push in the triangular plunger on the gear assembly to where it butts in to the hammer retaining pin. I did this by using a flathead screwdriver through the top by way of the hammer(cocked back), while holding the bolt all the way to it's fully seated position, while sliding the gear toward the direction of the hammer. This allowed the center gear pin to fall into place. No force. Just gravity. Just don't push the plunger past the hammer retaining pin or you'll have to start over.
3rd) After the gear pin falls into place, I inserted the lever and drove the lever pin from the bottom upwardly into place.
I know this doesn't fallow the Gun Digest instructions exactly and one of the 3pins will be opposite of the original factory assembly, but, it works. I disassembled and repeated to prove to myself that it works. I have no problem reassembling this rifle and will not fear it ever again. I will disassemble now and prep it for DuraCoat.
My theory here was that it would be easier to move the center pin vs the lever pin. Why, because every thing moves with the lever pin removed and the plunger wasn't allowing me to slide the gear to its rearmost position. With the center pin removed, only the gear can move. I knew if I moved the gear into the proper position while pushing on the plunger, with the lever pin in place, that everything else would naturally align and the center pin would fall into place...and it did.
Hope this helps someone in the future. There is very little info out there other than the Gun Digest directions. They helped me work through the problem, but, in the end they just didn't work for me. I think people will have more success with my modified version.
