Colt Single-Action 3rd Generation Firing Pin Broke

[40-82]

The firing pin on a third generation Colt New Frontier broke on me. Until I looked at the parts breakdown I didn't realize that these newer Colts had a rebounding firing pin with a tiny spring and two tiny little balls. I ordered the parts, and when I started to replace the firing pin spring I lost it. I don't understand what this spring and the two little balls accomplish, or why they are needed. I set the new firing pin in the hammer without the spring and the balls, holding the new firing pin in place with a tiny punch used as a slave pin. When I compared the play in this firing pin with another 3rd generation Colt, I couldn't feel any difference.

I put the new firing pin back in the hammer and fired it. I had a very solid center hit on the primer, and I could detect no problems. Immediately afterwards I fired the Colt with the original hammer parts and I noticed that it didn't hit the primer quite as hard, but this Colt I used for comparison has a slightly lighter hammer spring.

Did I make a mistake? Should I set this Colt up until I get a new spring or does the Colt even need these parts? My first impression is that if I can simplify a gun I rely on, I am better off, but when I think about the design of the hammer the only way the little spring and the two little firing pin balls could get into the action would be if the firing pin is already broken, and the gun is already out of service.

Please don't think I look at myself as a gunsmith. I am a farmer with a broken firing pin, and I know there are things I don't understand.

40-82

[Uncle Jimbo]

If the spring was there, it was for a reason. Otherwise Colt would not have put it in. So I would get a spring and install it.
Even at 3¢ each and maybe 10 minutes of time for a $20.00 an hour worker it put it in, it added up when you start making thousands of these. So if it was not needed, it would not be there.
So I would replace it if it was mine.

[40-82]

Thanks for the reply, Uncle Jimbo. I'm sure you're right. The spring was put there for a purpose, but now my curiosity is aroused. What does it do? Sometimes I can fix things simply by replacing a part that is broken or missing or polishing out a burr that shouldn't be there, but I feel a lot more confident of my work if I have the luxury of understanding what that part does.

As a side note, I have an Uncle Jimbo who always wore a hat very much like the one in your avatar. He was the best rifleman I ever knew. He learned from targets supplied by the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere in places like the 'Canal and New Guinea.