Okay, I hate to whine...just got my Uberti Dragoon from the Possible Shop. Got the wedge out, no major difficulty there. No matter how a I tried, could not get the barrel off. The loading lever jams halfway and only with alot of pressure will it fully cycle. The wedge pin tensioner looks like it was twisted length-wise. Had a fun range day set up...this is a bummer! I guess I just expected more from Uberti. I am sure the Possible shop will square it away, they are pretty good.
Dragoon dissappoints greatly
- Thread starter Hezekiah
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Texas Moon
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- Dec 13, 2004
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The barrel/frame is probably jammed together.
COMPLETELY remove the wedge from the gun.
Half cock the hammer.
Position the cylinder where the "web" between two different chambers is aligned with the loading lever and ram.
Lever down on the loading lever until the base of the ram sits on the "web".
Then use the leverage of the loading lever to push the barrel off the arbor pin.
Don't hammer on anything.
It might just be gunked up with grease or something.
COMPLETELY remove the wedge from the gun.
Half cock the hammer.
Position the cylinder where the "web" between two different chambers is aligned with the loading lever and ram.
Lever down on the loading lever until the base of the ram sits on the "web".
Then use the leverage of the loading lever to push the barrel off the arbor pin.
Don't hammer on anything.
It might just be gunked up with grease or something.
I have the Uberti 3rd and 2nd model Dragoons and have no issues, in fact, these are my favorite black powder pistols. When you say you "removed the wedge," did you completely clear it from the arbor? If it is not pulled to the wedge screw stop, it may still be slightly in the wedge slot on the arbor and that's why you can't get the front frame off.
The other issue with the loading lever is the rammer may have been installed upside down. Unscrew the lever from the rammer, and rotate it 180 degrees. Re-attache it to the lever and see if it works, there should be no binding of any kind as the lever is worked. Then make sure the wedge has cleared the arbor and use the loading lever assembly to separate the front frame.
The other issue with the loading lever is the rammer may have been installed upside down. Unscrew the lever from the rammer, and rotate it 180 degrees. Re-attache it to the lever and see if it works, there should be no binding of any kind as the lever is worked. Then make sure the wedge has cleared the arbor and use the loading lever assembly to separate the front frame.
Acorn Mush
Member
I suggest you use a piece of plastic or brass between the rammer and the web to eliminate any possible marring of the chamber mouths. An old flat toothbrush handle works just fine for me, but my revolvers don't require very much force to dismantle.
Good luck.
The barrel is stuck because of the tapered arbor.
This is not used on original Colt guns. It is something uberti came up with and I'm not sure why. It only makes the barrel come off harder.
ASM did it too.
Don't mark up the front of the cylinder with rammer. Will cause gun to foul up there and bind up when shooting. If you try using the rammer to push off barrel, put something between the two first.
you might have to tap on all four sides of barrel right on or close to joint to break it loose. use leather or hard rubber hammer.
This is not used on original Colt guns. It is something uberti came up with and I'm not sure why. It only makes the barrel come off harder.
ASM did it too.
Don't mark up the front of the cylinder with rammer. Will cause gun to foul up there and bind up when shooting. If you try using the rammer to push off barrel, put something between the two first.
you might have to tap on all four sides of barrel right on or close to joint to break it loose. use leather or hard rubber hammer.
What RodDoc said. Uberti does that so they don't have to fit the arbor length exactly to the arbor hole in the barrel. Good reason to make a plug for the end of the arbor to keep this from being a problem. I,ve never seen a tapered arbor on an ASM not sayng they didn't do it at some point.
Oh yes make sure the wedge is out far enough that it isn't still partly engaged in the arbor slot.
Oh yes make sure the wedge is out far enough that it isn't still partly engaged in the arbor slot.
Thanks guys! Here is the update: The Possible Shop owner himself called me back and was a great help. You guys hit it right, barrel was fused by time. I soaked the piss out of it with penetrating oil, stuck a flat piece of wood in front of the cyclinder and using a combination of the load lever and pulling, was able to free the barrel!!! Loading lever is really snug, but am sure that will loosen up over time. I cleaned it and covered it with bore butter. I am very impressed that the owner of the shop called me on a day off and helped me out. Thanks to y'all for the solid advice! The smoke wagon is back in action!
messerist
Member
Way to go Possible shop! I'm glad you got the issue resolved. I enjoy my Dragoon and am sure you will too. I also love a happy ending.
BHP FAN
Member
Huzzah! Three cheers for The Possible Shop!
I looked at an Italian made 2nd model Dragoon at a flea market yesterday. Asking price was $150.00. I didn't get it. All the screw heads were badly buggered. The sides of the barrel had no bluing left from holster wear, and had some little rust pits in place of some of the bluing o the barrel sides. The hand and star on the back of the cyl had a LOT of visible wear. The hammer could be pulled back all the way to the frame, about 3/8" past the full cock position, and if you let the hammer down slowly, it would hang up in the frame, about 1/8" from the fully down position. The left grip had a crack that ran from the top to the bottom and appeared to have been repaired with super glue. There was a small piece chipped out of the bottom of one of the grips. The cyl had lines running around the front 1/4 of it's length that looked to have been cold blued. The rest of the cyl looked like the factory had painted on the blue finish, it was smooth, but the front where the blue was missing/redone had lines(phonographing) around it where it was lathe turned. Also, there was a visible line/difference in thickness of the blue on the cyl where it had been reblued. It looked like the cyl was painted/enameled blue, and it had chipped off around the front.
The loading lever latch on the barrel was so loose in it's dovetail, I could push it out with 1 finger.
The loading lever had a round place on the left side that looked like a weld repair prior to the factory case hardening, and it had a pit at the rear of the repair.
It had Italian proof marks and "Made in Italy" stamped on the barrel and/or frame, but no maker's name or initials.
That made me wonder who made it, and if parts would even be available.
On the plus side, the bore was good.
I offered him $80.00 for it, which was the absolute most I could pay for it, given the condition, and money I would have to spend to make it look/work right again.
He wouldn't take it. He was insistent on getting $150.00 for it.
Feel free to flame me if I walked away from a good deal, but my gut told me that I'd put enough money and time into restoring it to buy a new one.
The loading lever latch on the barrel was so loose in it's dovetail, I could push it out with 1 finger.
The loading lever had a round place on the left side that looked like a weld repair prior to the factory case hardening, and it had a pit at the rear of the repair.
It had Italian proof marks and "Made in Italy" stamped on the barrel and/or frame, but no maker's name or initials.
That made me wonder who made it, and if parts would even be available.
On the plus side, the bore was good.
I offered him $80.00 for it, which was the absolute most I could pay for it, given the condition, and money I would have to spend to make it look/work right again.
He wouldn't take it. He was insistent on getting $150.00 for it.
Feel free to flame me if I walked away from a good deal, but my gut told me that I'd put enough money and time into restoring it to buy a new one.
qajaq59
Member
Doesn't sound too "good" to me. I'd have walked too. There's a limit on what you can spend on repairs, and that sounds like it would have gone way past it.
It happened again. After getting the front part of the frame/barrel off, I cleaned and lubed like no tomorrow. Put her back together, and tried to disassemle again last night. Frozen solid. I believe th eproblem is the tapered arbor, as mentioned to me in earlier post by RodDoc. My question is, is there any way to polish or reduce the diameter of the arbor to stop this!? This isn't fun anymore. BTW, wedge is taken completely out, hammer half cocked, tried the load lever (with hard wood between lever and front of cyclinder). Thanks!
Sounds like your tolerance are very tight. That's not such a bad thing. A pain for now I'm sure. It beats having a loose firearm. I think that over time it will break in just fine. Have you tried tapping it with a rubber mallet to vibrate it loose?
Make a plug for the end of the arbor and that will eliminate the problem. Sounds like you used a little too much force on the wedge and it stuck the tapers together again. With a plug to take up the extra space in the arbor hole it will only go on so far and the nice fit will be preserved.
Miled steel works good. An easy way to do it is to get some washers at the hardware store that are slightly smaller in diameter than the arbor. Measure the thickness of two of them and drop them into the arbor hole and put the barrel back on. Measure the gap between the frame and the barrel lug with a dial caliper or feeler guage and subtract that dimension from the thickness of the two washers and that is how thick your plug needs to be. Generally one of the washers will be close to what you need and you can file or stone it to the right thickness and JB weld it to the end of the arbor. Problem solved.
arcticap
Member
Others have mentioned using small brass washers or aluminum disks cut out from a soda can.
I wonder if once the "plug" is properly fit then maybe it wouldn't even need to be epoxied into place. The pieces could simply be dropped in and out while being careful not to lose them during cleaning and disassembly.
Epoxying them to the arbor may change the way that they fit and they may still end up coming loose without realizing it. Whereas without epoxy, just count the number of fitted discs and keep some spares handy without needing to put messy epoxy on the arbor.
If the epoxy comes loose then the arbor end will possibly need to be cleaned off, re-epoxied and re-fitted over and over again.
Just some food for thought.
I wonder if once the "plug" is properly fit then maybe it wouldn't even need to be epoxied into place. The pieces could simply be dropped in and out while being careful not to lose them during cleaning and disassembly.
Epoxying them to the arbor may change the way that they fit and they may still end up coming loose without realizing it. Whereas without epoxy, just count the number of fitted discs and keep some spares handy without needing to put messy epoxy on the arbor.
If the epoxy comes loose then the arbor end will possibly need to be cleaned off, re-epoxied and re-fitted over and over again.
Just some food for thought.
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Putting them loose in the hole certainly would work. It's just a bit of a pain. The plug thickness will generally be around .050. That would be a lot of pop can shims. If you clean the arbor and the washer with alcohol or acetone and JB weld it in place it isn't comming off unless you heat it or dissolve it in acetone. If you have the tools you can spot aneal the end of the arbor and drill and tap it for 1/4X28 set screw. But that is work.
Okay, I took a real good look at the arbor. It was so fat the pins on the fram e would not even touch the holes on the barrel before it stuck. I forced it to make it fit, and that kept it sticking. Right or wong, I got a dremel and "polished" the arbor where it began sticking, and followed up with 400 sand paper. Y'all were right, the arbor was too stout. It now fits, comes apart with solid hand pressure and cycles well. I think this did it!!!! Oorah!
Hez
Hez
messerist
Member
Congrats on your fix. Now go shooting!
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