ithaca 37 feeding problem

laogai

October 06, 2011 16:46

my friend's older ithaca 37 is suddenly not feeding shells out the magazine, tho it is ejecting fine. my ithaca 37s have had reloads jam in the magazine apparently due to tight tolerances but he is having the problem with factory AA's and others. seems the arm that blocks the shell from ejecting is not moving fully out of the way when the action is pumped all the way to the rear, as opposed to sticking in the magazine wall.

he's had the gun several years w no problems until now.

ideas? just a thorough cleaning? he used action-blaster moderately and it hasn't done the trick.

thanks for any help

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  pitjeep

  October 06, 2011 16:54

  do a complete tear down cleaning & lube,looking for any bent parts. reassembly & try it.

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  charliemeyer007

  October 06, 2011 17:47

  Could be some out of spec ammo. I bought the MEC super sizer collet just for my 37 reloads. A good tear down cleaning is were I'd start. +1 pitjeep

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  Mobuck

  October 07, 2011 03:46

  If you can tear it down and clean it, that's a good idea. If not, hose the action out with Gunscrubber or Brake Parts Cleaner. Protect the forearm when using these products as they might damage the finish. Turn the action muzzle up and hose out the mag tube, again protecting the stock finish. After drying, give it a little lube and see if the problem goes away.

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  makindu

  October 07, 2011 05:17

  You've already zeroed in on the problem area. The shell stop arm. You said it doesn't retract far enough into the receiver sidewall when the action is worked fully rearward, which it should do unless it had gotten bent or otherwise damaged. I wonder if there is debris, dirt, sand, gunk or whatever behind the upper end of the shell stop arm. Could you tell us this... with the action fully closed, does the shell stop arm move easily to the inside of the receiver wall with just a little light pressure from your finger? It should take very little pressure to accomplish this. If you have to press fairly hard, it would point to possibly some obstruction along the upper end of that rail. Again, the teardown suggestion and thorough cleaning is the route I would go. Clean and lube the rail where the shell stop arm resides. After disassembly, take a toothbrush and scrub out all the gunk that has built up over the years inside that rail, using gunscrubber or some other solvent. Let us know what you find.

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  laogai

  October 07, 2011 18:37

  thanks all. i'll ask my friend for the outcome so i can post it

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  laogai

  October 08, 2011 08:50

  so far he has dissembled the gun and cleaned it. in fact found a lot of crud was behind the shell stop arm/bar. not re-assembled or tested yet

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  laogai

  October 09, 2011 05:35

  emeail from my friend today . . .
  
  "we figured out how to take my 12 Gage apart. Soaked
  the parts in Prolix. It was pretty dirty and easy to see why the bars that
  release the shells to re-load were not closing all the way. Put it back
  together and its now working great, jam problem solved. The action works
  quite smooth, interested to see how it works in freezing conditions.
  
  I went ahead and did the same thing to my Ithaca 37 20 Gage, it too is now
  working like new. Once I knew how to dissemble it was quite easy, had it
  apart in less than 5 minutes."
  
  thanks again to all

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  makindu

  October 09, 2011 05:41

  Excellent!
  Thanks for the update.

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