Hello Art:

  From what you've asked and indicated let me see if my guidance will prove helpful;

The breech block and under finger lever each rotate on an axis "SUPPORT PIN" (a total of two pins) which has an oval head with a screw driver slot cut in it and the both of them (2 such support pins) enter the left hand side wall of the action. (Follow so far?)

These two support pins are of a length so that they reach the full width of the action and meet the opposite side wall on the right hand side where they align with the 2 holes found on the right hand side wall.

IMPORTANT--The 2 support pins ARE NOT THREADED SCREWS, but have the screw driver slots in their heads NOT so that they may be turned and screwed out of the left side wall that retains then, BUT RATHER so that they may be (1) ALIGNED AND ORIENTED IN PLACE and (2) HELD STATIONARY AND  IN PLACE without rotating. (I'll Explain why so in a second)

Each of the 2 support pins that we are discussing, and which enter the left hand side wall of the action have as part of their design two "cleats" (for lack of a better term) per head on the under side of their oval heads.  The two cleats per pin align up with and mate into corresponding slots ( or recesses) that are cut into the action side wall on the left hand side (there are NO SUCH SLOTS in the right hand side wall, JUST ON THE LEFT)

Follow so far ? ?  In other words--the two long support pins enter their respective holes on the left hand side, they slide in and through to hole in their respective component (one into the breech block pivot hole, and the second one into the finger lever pivot hole) and "they are pushed home" which means "in as far as they will go"   

You're not finished quite yet!!  Reason, each of the two pins now need to be aligned and seated (whatever that means? ?)  What that means is ; you reach for your correct size screw driver that fits the slot in the support pin head and you rotate the support pin 90 degrees while applying

Having removed the pivots for breechblock and lever, pull the lever away and the breechblock will follow it.  Capture the extractor.  When reassembling, practice a few times without the extractor.  

Simply lay the extractor on the breechblock when re-inserting.  This is the only tricky bit about reassembling a Model 44.  It can help to remove the barrel if getting the extractor back gives you trouble.  I also have a slightly undersize 2" long "slave pin" with a long taper on it to help align the extractor eye whilst inserting the actual pivot.  

If the hammer is to be removed, first remove the buttstock.  Notice the orientation of the main spring, and how it seats into the back of the hammer.  Now, with breechblock removed, pull the trigger to let the hammer down into the breechblock space.  Lift out the spring.  Remove the hammer pivot screw. 

The trigger should be obvious. 

Firing pin is retained by a cross pin in the breech block. Drive out the cross pin and the firing pin should fall right out.  Not always, because the groove on the pin is sometimes battered.  

With the breechblock/lever assembly out, note the condition of the link pins.  The most common cause of a floppy lever is that these pins, (and the link holes) get battered and bent.   The usual fix is the use oversize pins, for which reaming the holes slightly larger may prove necessary, (the holes get battered out of round).
New pins should be a light drive fit.  Make pins from drill rod or steel dowels.  These pins take a heck of a beating.  

The lever and breechblock pivots also take a beating, and they wear.  The pins could be rotated 180 degrees save for that "cleat".   I have been known to make a new notch in the frame to enable them to be put back rotated 180.  I have also reamed one rifle to use pins made from 5/16 dowels, and drilled setscrew holes to retain them, a la the Winchester.

Quote:


Art -- The J. Stevens M-44 actions are 90 % plus,  the same whether Rim-Fire or Center-Fire.

The two Deltas are the extractors and of course the location of the firing pins in the breech blocks, both of which are self explanatory.

The other Delta that I'll mention is that some later M-44's had a coiled main spring on a guide rod, whereas the earlier production guns had the leaf spring.  Neither of those features would alter the de / re assembly process worth noting.

Take your action apart and reassemble that same day, but do it slowly and "talk your-self through it, making mental note as to what you've done and why you had to do it in that sequence, following what USCRA has indicated.  Wait a full day and on the third day do the process again just to reinforce the first day,.  .  .  .

That will ingrain what you've learned and it , the dis-re assembly, will become 2nd nature to you.

Ask any question that has not already been answered.

Regards,

Creedmoormatch

thanks guys;  great help, i will print it   art

Quote:


Actually, the better terms for these pieces are "Pivot Pin" / or "Block Support Pin" and "Finger Lever Support Pin" instead of calling them screws, which they are not.

Yes, the I.D.'ed "pins" do have a drilled and tapped female thread in order to accept their capture cap screw, but to call them screws is to misidentify them to a purest.

Also I would note that, quote "..the weird screw head on the right side that has the locking tabs . . ." as it has been called, is located, in all my Stevens M-44 actions, on the LEFT HAND side of the action side wall.

The poster has said, "NO idea why Stevens over complicated this"

Stevens designers had their reason for designing the arrangement the way that you find it, and the reason IS -- so that once the two support/pivot pins are inserted into their respective holes in the left hand side of the Action side walls, the cleats (or tabs if you prefer to call them that) found under the pin head engage with the side wall recesses and "lock the pin to the action" thereby preventing the support pin from rotating in either direction as the breech block and the finger lever component rotate back and forth around the support pins.

REASON;  It would be desired to wear the support pin diameter, instead of having the two support pins wear and elongate their side wall hole diameters.  Replacement support pins were cataloged as "spares" by J.Stevens, whereas machined " Action Castings " were not so listed.

Any questions ?

Creedmoormatch
.

Forgot the actual name of the part and sometimes have trouble knowing my right from my left in my old age!

slumlord44 wrote on Oct 20^th, 2014 at 1:14pm:

The catalogs do help.

On page 23 of the Stevens Catalog No. 50, Stevens refers to them as "bolts" and provides the following description:

     Another important improvement in the "Ideal" rifle, in place of the former breech block, lever and extractor being held in place by large screws that fastened in the frame by threads, a bolt that goes through the frame without threads is employed. On the outside of this bolt is a V shaped projection, which in turn fits into a similiar depression in the frame, thus holding it rigid and making it impossible to turn. This bolt goes into the frame from the left hand side and is held in place by a screw going in from the right hand side, consequently if it is desired to take the rifle apart it can be readily done by removing the right hand screw and driving the bolt out to the left.

On pade 71 of the Stevens General Catalog No. 53, in the illustrated parts breakdown, Stevens now refers to the bolts as "pivots".

Take your pick.