UpTheIrons
Member
Greetings all!
Believe it or not, I'm having a hard time getting answers over at RFC to these questions, so I thought I'd try here, too.
What I have is a Marlin 57 Levermatic rebranded as a Sears Model 44DL. The barrel stamp (JG) indicates a manufacture date of October 1963, yet the rollmark includes a serial number of 103.19XXX, which puzzles me a bit. Maybe that's an internal Sears thing?
I got it from my father, and he said he bought it in 1964 or '65, which jibes with the barrel stamp code. Anyway, on with the problems and pictures:
It has been well-loved over the last 45+ years. Here are two squirrels, the rifle and me in late 1973:
Along with cleaning it up, getting as much of the rust off as possible, and refinishing the stock, the main problem is that the safety doesn't work. Flip it forward and the gun will still fire.
My dad tried (many years ago) to do a home-brew trigger job and filed something down too far. He wasn't here when I did the takedown, so I called and asked - he said he filed down a part that had a cam on it. Not sure exactly what part he was talking about. I emailed him a picture of the internals, hoping he can remember, but I'm still waiting.
Nothing looks like it was filed down. After cleaning, it simply looks like normal wear that wore the bluing off the sear and hammer. With the safety slide forward in the "on" position, there is nothing that contacts anything to impede the movement of the trigger - the sear is free to release the hammer. How is the safety supposed to work?
I'll show the internals as we get there.
It is filthy!
The sideplate assembly screw and washer fell out (the screw was broken) when I pulled the action out of the stock:
With the lever open, the trigger block drops into place:
And with the lever closed, eveything is as it should be:
However, looking at the parts list at Numrich:
http://www.gunpartscorp.com/catalog/Products.aspx?catid=3582
I seem to be missing part #63, the spacing sleeve.
A couple more gratuitous shots:
The filthy bolt is filthy
I have the entire rifle disassembled except for removing the barrel from the receiver. I would like to remove it to fix this problem:
I have the barrel retaining pin out, and am soaking it in Breakfree CLP, but I'm not sure how to get the barrel out of the aluminum receiver without damaging it.
The front sight is missing, and my dad has no idea what he did with it. The threads in the barrel look really clean, so if I get the parts from Numrich (part numbers 39, 40 and 41 on the schematic above) is there anything special I should do to the threads before I install it, besides cleaning out the CLP with a Q-Tip?
This is what the internals (less pins and springs) look like after they've been cleaned. The bolt looks amazing compared to what it looked like in the earlier shot. Any hints on what to look for here?
The safety slide is flipped 180 degrees to show the 'nubs' that are supposed to work as the safety. I took a few measurements; in the photo above, the 'nub' on the right (just above the part that you slide with your finger) is 0.108" high, while the one in the middle of the slide is 0.152". The sear measures 0.111" where it contacts the hammer, and 0.116" where it contacts the trigger (and supposedly) the safety slide.
One last thing, the lever has damaged the stock somewhat. Any hints on how to repair this damage, or get the stain out?
Thank you for any help you can give!
Believe it or not, I'm having a hard time getting answers over at RFC to these questions, so I thought I'd try here, too.
What I have is a Marlin 57 Levermatic rebranded as a Sears Model 44DL. The barrel stamp (JG) indicates a manufacture date of October 1963, yet the rollmark includes a serial number of 103.19XXX, which puzzles me a bit. Maybe that's an internal Sears thing?
I got it from my father, and he said he bought it in 1964 or '65, which jibes with the barrel stamp code. Anyway, on with the problems and pictures:
It has been well-loved over the last 45+ years. Here are two squirrels, the rifle and me in late 1973:
Along with cleaning it up, getting as much of the rust off as possible, and refinishing the stock, the main problem is that the safety doesn't work. Flip it forward and the gun will still fire.
My dad tried (many years ago) to do a home-brew trigger job and filed something down too far. He wasn't here when I did the takedown, so I called and asked - he said he filed down a part that had a cam on it. Not sure exactly what part he was talking about. I emailed him a picture of the internals, hoping he can remember, but I'm still waiting.
Nothing looks like it was filed down. After cleaning, it simply looks like normal wear that wore the bluing off the sear and hammer. With the safety slide forward in the "on" position, there is nothing that contacts anything to impede the movement of the trigger - the sear is free to release the hammer. How is the safety supposed to work?
I'll show the internals as we get there.
It is filthy!
The sideplate assembly screw and washer fell out (the screw was broken) when I pulled the action out of the stock:
With the lever open, the trigger block drops into place:
And with the lever closed, eveything is as it should be:
However, looking at the parts list at Numrich:
http://www.gunpartscorp.com/catalog/Products.aspx?catid=3582
I seem to be missing part #63, the spacing sleeve.
A couple more gratuitous shots:
The filthy bolt is filthy
I have the entire rifle disassembled except for removing the barrel from the receiver. I would like to remove it to fix this problem:
I have the barrel retaining pin out, and am soaking it in Breakfree CLP, but I'm not sure how to get the barrel out of the aluminum receiver without damaging it.
The front sight is missing, and my dad has no idea what he did with it. The threads in the barrel look really clean, so if I get the parts from Numrich (part numbers 39, 40 and 41 on the schematic above) is there anything special I should do to the threads before I install it, besides cleaning out the CLP with a Q-Tip?
This is what the internals (less pins and springs) look like after they've been cleaned. The bolt looks amazing compared to what it looked like in the earlier shot. Any hints on what to look for here?
The safety slide is flipped 180 degrees to show the 'nubs' that are supposed to work as the safety. I took a few measurements; in the photo above, the 'nub' on the right (just above the part that you slide with your finger) is 0.108" high, while the one in the middle of the slide is 0.152". The sear measures 0.111" where it contacts the hammer, and 0.116" where it contacts the trigger (and supposedly) the safety slide.
One last thing, the lever has damaged the stock somewhat. Any hints on how to repair this damage, or get the stain out?
Thank you for any help you can give!
