Assembly of H&R .32 Top Break
I recently aquired an Unmarked Model, H&R, 6-shot .32 S&W, New Model Top-Break. This revolver was missing the trigger return and sear springs and the hand spring was broken. I got all the replacement parts but am having difficulty installing the sear.
With the trigger/lifter assembly and no sear the timing is good. With the sear and no trigger, the sear works good. With both "installed" the timing either goes "short" or the hammer will not seat. Because inserting the pivot pin in the sear thru the trigger guard is a "blind" operation, I'm not sure if I'm hitting the sear pivot hole, or the new sear coil spring needs fitting.
Anybody got any advice or tricks on how to "pilot" the sear or adjust a coil sear spring? Thanks.
With the trigger/lifter assembly and no sear the timing is good. With the sear and no trigger, the sear works good. With both "installed" the timing either goes "short" or the hammer will not seat. Because inserting the pivot pin in the sear thru the trigger guard is a "blind" operation, I'm not sure if I'm hitting the sear pivot hole, or the new sear coil spring needs fitting.
Anybody got any advice or tricks on how to "pilot" the sear or adjust a coil sear spring? Thanks.
0
-
You need to use a short "slave" pin to hold the sear in trigger guard while you insert the trigger guard in frame, and then drive the slave pin out with regular pin. 0 -
I have not tried that approach, only a "thru" pilot. Never occured to me to shorten a pin to the length of the trigger guard (duh). Identifying this model and finding the parts has been frustrating, let alone this problem where a loss of patience affected my ingenuity! Will let you know how it turns out. Thanks very much! 0 -
swppopgun,
There have been times when a couple of toothpicks make very good slavepins. They are not long-lasting, though.[;)][:p]0 -
The slave pin procedure makes assembly easy and verifies the sear pivot hole is mounted on the pin. However and unfortunately, I must have been getting the sear installed the "hard way" before as I still have the same issue with the hammer hanging on the half-cock notch in the fire cycle and the trigger will not trip the sear to fire it in the full-cock notch, the trigger simply runs out of travel.
When I manualy return the hammer by tripping the sear thru the butt crotch I must force the sear forward for the hammer firing pin to reseat fully so I am not getting a complete cycle. The only suspect piece I find is some slight elongation on the outer edges of the trigger pivot hole and some very tiny cracks in the metal. The center of the trigger body is not worn and fits the pin fairly tight. I can't picture a wrong way to mount the sear on the pivot. I am sure the sear spring goes against the long flat side of the sear.
If I thought this gun was worth more than $150 I would take it to a Smith but has become an amateur's challenge! About 75% of the original blue remains, has perfect grips and good shiny bore. With the investment in the new parts I would not like to sell it. I've got a .38 SW H&R Defender Special and I want to add this one to my collection as a working gun.
I appreciate all of your suggestions and help.0 -
Repairing/restoring these guns is an art unto itself. All I can say, after doing hundreds of them, is that it never gets any easier, you just get more patient and learn all the pratfalls. LOL 0 -
Maybe there's crud or a coil off of old spring in bottom of hole the sear spring sits in, causing new spring to fully compress too soon and limit sear travel. 0 -
Removing a couple of coils from the sear spring and reshaping the trigger guard did the trick! Thanks to everyone who contributed. 0
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
7 comments