Ithaca 37 forearm problem?

[Oldnamvet]

A friend dropped this off and asked if I could find out if something was wrong. Which meant there probably was. He had the action arm re-soldered into place on the pump. Now he said it didn't act right and felt loose. I took off the barrel and noticed that there seemed to be a lot of play from end-to-end of the wood forearm on the sleeve that is attached to the action arm/rod. I took some pictures of the back of the forearm nearest to the action in the two positions. It appears to slide nearly 1/4" back and forth. Is this normal? If not, how was the wood forearm anchored to the sleeve that goes around the magazine? Or would this indicate that there is some type of bushing/spacer missing?

(Oops - just noticed that one should have been rotated 90 degrees)

 

[simmonsguns]

check the tube nut, i looks like it is loose.
When it's tight there should be no movement from the wood.

 

[Oldnamvet]

Thanks. The tube nut appears to be tight but I don't have the special tool to fit in the notches to check. From the buggering of the notches I would say the gunsmith didn't either and used a screwdriver and hammer to turn the nut. I was wondering if there is any kind of spacer or orientation of the nut since although it seems tight, it would have to turn on almost 1/4" more to take up the slack. He had it worked on by a moonlighting gunsmith whose shop is always a real mess. It would have been easy for something to get lost on his bench.

 

[Virginian]

Agree with Simmons. The take up is on the other end. I don't remember if there was a spacer or not, but you could make one quite easily.

 

[simmonsguns]

There is not a spacer but if the tube nut is down as far as it is going to go than you could always make one.
It would be better to disassemble the whole mag tube and action arm and check the nut.
With the mag tube out of the way you can tighten the nut using a piece of steel stock that fits into the slots tightly, check to see if the smith buggered up the threads.
If all else fails i have a tube and nut sitting around my basement and i don't have a 37, god only knows where the tube came from.
let me know how it goes.

 

[Oldnamvet]

Thanks a lot, will do. I know good gunsmith and am going to get him to take it in for a look. Might be only a 5 minute fix. Also saw that the screw holding the clamp at the front of the magazine tube is really screwed up. Looks like he used a screwdriver that was too narrow and didn't come near fitting. I always hate to see that and usually back away from any used gun that has buggered screws. I know what it usually means inside.