cleaning up DA pull...

[yesterdaysyouth]

i've got this smith 66-5 (no lock) i changed out the mainspring and return spring with wolff reduced power springs and the trigger is much better in SA......

but the DA is like pulling a mule into a headchute, well not that bad, but real jerky and uneven... my smith 29 is smooth and even from start to finish, i guess in the 80's smith was still trying to make an excellent revolver off the line...

so where do i need to go from here??? polishing? new parts?

 

[mete]

First, smoothness is more important than lightness for a DA pull. Contact surfaces may be smoothed with a fine hard arkansaw stone or equivalent. It must be done carefully to maintain original angles and contours. My M29 has a 9 lb very smooth pull at full reliability. I don't remember the original pull. On my Benelli shot gun , just by polishing I went from a poor 8 1/2 to a very nice 5 lb. So polishing can make a big difference but do it carefully.

 

[Standing Wolf]

...polishing can make a big difference but do it carefully.

Very carefully. It's not at all difficult to ruin an action with overzealous stoning.

 

[yesterdaysyouth]

alright now what surfaces are we talking about ???

i took some of the parts with the most contact with each other and the frame and greased them up, which helped quite a bit, but the pull is still jerky... mostly right before it breaks...

 

[E357]

You really want to polish up and break all the edges on that rebound-bar that slides back and forth behind the trigger. That stiffness just before the hammer lets go in DA MIGHT be the "hand" and unless you know what your doing I would suggest lots of snapcaps and about a month of watching democrates on television.

If you want to polish up the trigger - just work on breaking the edges and the smoothing the ROUNDED parts near the flat sear engagement surface - stay away from that. The same holds true for the hammer - don't even think of working on the tiny SA engagement. The double action sear may need adjustment, but give it a go with lots of dry firing first.

Elliot

 

[mete]

If you have never done it before first get a book or video or take it to someone who really knows how to do it . I've done many a trigger job on revolvers so I do everything including the single action notch. It's not a good idea to try to explain in words, pictures do better.

 

[yesterdaysyouth]

well i just did the deed....

and it turned out great, not slick as wet glass but a huge improvemnet over stock.....

so i picked up the finest snadpaper we had at work which was 4/0 grit, honestly it feels just like paper but enough strokes would make metal shine....

i just laid the paper flat on the bench and started strokin'

i did radius the corners off of the rebound spring retainer and opened up the mouth that accepts that pin in the frame there.... i just went over everything that rubbed enough to get a good shine from it, including the SA notch

after i cleaned up and greased everything up, i put the guts back in, that spring inside the trigger is a bastard it was pull till i couldn't pull any more.....

maybe it was just the thought of doing it myself that made it feel so good, had a paid a smith to do it, i'd probally picked it apart and talked some trash, but it's my first revolver job and i'll probally shine on it some more later....

i have 150 rnds of 38 so i think tommorow i won't have so many....

 

[bountyhunter]

Rule of Thumb

For SW trigger jobs.

Don't polish any sear faces on the trigger or hammer. Those parts are case hardened and you will go through the hardening fast.

 

[E357]

bountyhunter: I've got a quick question - How do they harden the new MIM sear surfaces?

Elliot