Brent:

The flatspring lever was held tight to the action by the flatspring itself. When they went to the coil spring, Winchester put a spring loaded plunger up into the bottom of the receiver ring in front of and above the lever pivot pin. This plunger bears on a rib like boss on the front of the lever. I'm a guessing the lever droop is cause by a missing spring and plunger.

The half cock problem is a bit grayer, but my first guess would be hammer fly issues. Could be a good bath and judicious stoning of burrs and such may solve the problem.

Mr. Steele may be able to help. I think he may be the only man in the free world who actually knows how that single set trigger really works. Personally, I think it is sorcery and witchcraft of the same ilk that holds a Ballard breech block closed.

Glenn

Thanks guys, 

If it was a burr or something involving the fly, wouldn't it malfunction when the trigger group is removed?  Somehow it does work when the trigger group is out - of course the sear has to be manually tripped, but all this may be a lot clearer to me when I get to see it tonight.

HST, I agree on the Win SS trigger being a sorcer's doing.  Mr. Steel fixed one for me, and it was apparently just microns of something more or less that mattered.

Brent

Frog, I have not seen the rifle appart, but did see it for a short  period on Tuesday.  It will be in pieces tonight in my basement and we will see about the plunger and spring - It is probably missing completely.  I have never seen a coil spring in pieces before, so I don't know how they are supposed to work at all.   

The hammer will hold half and full cock and fall from full to fired w/o the trigger group in the rifle - tripping the sear by hand.   

With the trigger group in, it will work just fine if the trigger is set first, but if unset, it will not catch on half-cock.  We will be debugging it with Campbell's drawings in hand, and your suggestions in mind.

Thanks, Brent

I found one picture that shows a "ghost view" of the flat spring action.  This along with the coil spring parts you probably have should help visualize the relationships that are at work here.   

HTH!! Froggie

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Brent, your friend's SST problem sounds like exactly what plagued yours, an imbalance in spring tensions between the sear spring and the SST kicker spring. This is perhaps the most common set trigger problem with the walls other than a gummed-up fly, but it's usually fairly easy to remedy.

The wall hammer is designed with unequal-distance radii between the half-cock and full-cock notches, such that when the sear nose is positioned so that it's just barely able to engage the full-cock notch, then it won't quite enter fully into the half-cock one. The sear nose tends to balance on the edge of the half-cock notch or else miss it completely.

This condition can occasionally be quite exciting. (VBG)

The basic problem (and solution) lies with the dimensions and shape of the SST kicker spring, the heavy one that enters the kicker from the rear. The forward end of this spring is designed to bear upon two pins in the kicker, and the dimensions and strength of the spring are what determines the position of the kicker when the SST is unset, i.e. when the rifle is normally being placed on half-cock.

Close examination of the forward end of the kicker spring will probably reveal a couple of bright spots where the spring hits the two transverse pins. The rear mark is made by the pin which holds the kicker to the trigger plate/tang (the pivot pin), while the front mark is made by the pin within the kicker (the pin against which the kicker spring acts to transfer the kicking energy & motion). In this design the pivot pin is also acting as a stop pin, to limit the motion of the kicker spring.

You can see that these two pins are fairly close together, with the rear one acting as a stop for the movement of the spring end and the front one acting to push the kicker upward against the foot of the sear. The leverage is such that a very slight change in the relative positions of the bearing points on the spring ends will have a major effect upon the position of the end of the kicker which bears aginst the sear foot.

What appears to be happenig here is that the kicker spring (in its unset position) is pushing the kicker just a little too high, allowing the sear to just barely engage the full-cock notch but holding it just barely clear of the half-cock one. The solution is to gradually relieve the forward end of the kicker spring at the position of the forward-most bright mark, where it bears against the forward pin, so as to allow the top of the kicker to sit very slightly lower. When the spring is relieved enough and the top of the kicker is low enough, the sear will fall into the half-cock notch with no special manipulation and everything should work OK.

An alternate solution is to use a heavier sear spring so as to hold the top end of the kicker slightly lower against the tension of the kicker spring, but this will increase the unset trigger pull to an unacceptable (to me) level. I try to use the lightest sear spring that will provide crisp reliable action, and so I play with the kicker spring ends to obtain the proper dimensions.
HTH, call with any questions, regards, Joe

PS I got your package with the targets today, many thanks for returning them.

The guy with the upside-down ad ain The Single Shot Exchange - Buckingham's  - Has Winchester parts.
Phone 731-559-4169 or 731-559-4375
fax 731-559-4367

Quote:



I'm afraid that you'll find that Albert (Buckingham) doesn't sell parts.

He RANSOMS them!

But.......a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.
Good luck, Joe