For Want Of A 50¢ Spring

[Foto Joe]

Last week a buddy of mine from Texas was up here in Wyoming. Since he rarely gets to shoot down there I took him out for some R&R along with a couple of lever guns, a 1911 and one of my favorite SAA's. While he was re-familiarizing himself with how a 1911 works I ran a couple of cylinders through my Uberti SAA and noted that I had an out of battery primer strike on one (it didn't go off). As I cycled the gun empty I noticed that I was getting a failure to lock up about half the time. The cylinder block appeared to be rising and falling like it should but it just didn't look right. Needless to say the purdy little nickle SAA got put away for the day.

Fast forward to yesterday and I had time to pull the gun apart and found that the trigger/block spring had a crack in it. When I took it apart I couldn't even see the crack and it wasn't until I re-assembled that I found the problem. You'll note that in the picture it's still in one piece.

Monday morning I'll get to find out how good Uberti Customer Service is. I really don't want to send the whole gun back just for a spring replacement, hopefully they'll send me one (two would be nice) and allow me to just fix it myself.

[Mk42gunner]

I believe Brownell's sells a music wire replacement spring that is supposed to fit most Colt clones from the 1851 Navy on up for way less than the cost of shipping your gun back to Uberti.

After seeing a picture of one I don't think it would be too hard to make your own as long as you have access to some music wire of close to the right diameter.

Robert

[fg-machine]

i dont think i would even worry about bothering uberti about a warranty for what the spring costs to replace . i am thinking a new wolff spring will be around $6
and you can get it in either a wire replacement as mentioned above or a stock flat spring style , i would go with the wire spring myself .
while your at it , buy an extra spring or three to have around and consider a a new spare main spring as well . its very very common for these to break .

[bedbugbilly]

I really don't think that piece of iron is even worth fixing . . . box up all the parts and send 'em to me and I'll dispose of them for you. :-)

Too bad that had to happen and spoil the SAA fun with your buddy - but I think there's a "Murphy's Law" that covers those things. Good suggestions and it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a couple spares on hand - like everything else, if you have 'em you won't need 'em.

Good luck - you'll get her fixed and back in good shape in not time. I love my Ubertis - my current '51 Navy has served me well for quite a few years. I have a 357 Uberti Bisley - love it and I have a new 45 Colt steel 7 1/2" Cattleman on the way - ordered it last Friday. Right now, I'm like a kid waiting for Christmas!

[TXGunNut]

Yep, just ordered Wolff bolt and mainsprings for all my Colt 1873's and clones. Go with the wire type bolt spring, seems to be an improvement over the flat spring. Wolff mainspring really makes for a sweet-handling revolver, IMHO.

[Foto Joe]

I think I'll take the advice given and get in touch with Brownells. I've thought about modifying the main spring on this revolver but haven't gotten a round tuit as they say. It did get slicked up while I was down in AZ a year ago though.

[shorty500M]

Have used the music wire spring Brownells handles in several Colts, clones, cap'n'ball replicas and even 2 old Mossberg Abelines. works like a champ although you may have to shorten and rebend trigger leg to function in some guns

[Guesser]

VTI Replica gun parts is the goto source for Uberti parts. great people to deal with.

[Scharfschuetze]

My brother's Uberti had the same failure last summer while shooting outside of Lander. It was an easy diagnosis as I've seen it before.

He took the revolver to a gunsmith over in Pavillion to the Northwest of Riverton. That might be a rather long drive from Cody, but if you have business in the Riverton/Lander area it wouldn't be out of the way.

[Foto Joe]

I got a hold of Uberti a couple of days ago, they have one in the mail on its way to me. I did look at Brownells but the wire trigger/bolt spring for Uberti is out of stock on their site. I'm sure that I could make the other one that they have in stock work but I just don't have time to mess with it. Hunting season is around the corner and I'm working on rifle loads and my wife is in the hospital in Billings (as am I at the moment) for the next week. Not where we wanted to spend the Labor Day weekend but it'll have to do.

[TXGunNut]

I got a hold of Uberti a couple of days ago, they have one in the mail on its way to me. I did look at Brownells but the wire trigger/bolt spring for Uberti is out of stock on their site. I'm sure that I could make the other one that they have in stock work but I just don't have time to mess with it. Hunting season is around the corner and I'm working on rifle loads and my wife is in the hospital in Billings (as am I at the moment) for the next week. Not where we wanted to spend the Labor Day weekend but it'll have to do.


Sorry, Joe. I think I cleaned them out when I ordered enough to do all my 1873's. They have a kit with 3 or 4 springs including the bolt and mainspring for not much more than the combined price. Let me know if Uberti doesn't get that one to you pretty soon, I think I can spare one.

[Foto Joe]

I didn't have a lot of time to look and I was using my phone. I would like to replace the main spring on at least one of my SAA's. I was going to "trim" the spring a year or so ago but didn't get around to it simply because I lacked the intestinal fortitude to play with a working gun. I'll have a look for the kit though when I get time tomorrow. Right now the laptop is down to 10% and my phone is dead. I've got to head back to the motel and plug everything in.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

order 2 , any time I break a part less than 10 dollars I am now ordering 2 , I had a smith out of commission half the summer it broke in June for a trigger pin , stupid thing was on back order with S&W and Midway , I broke down in early august and decided over a month with a broken gun was stupid and bought 2 of the parts that smith would send me for free when they got them or midway wanted for 1.99 but were back ordered till 8/30 but brownells wanted 3.99 each and shipping but I could have them in 3-5 days , I got the 2 from brownelles and installed one put one away for if I need one again , and Monday 8/31 the one I had ordered from S&W showed up it has been added to the spare parts inventory now

[Foto Joe]

So I'm on Brownells right now and I'm looking at the Wolff SAA Shooters Pak and I've got a couple of questions:

What is a "Flat Shooters Spring Pak" versus the non-flat pak? Both show wire springs for the trigger/bolt instead of the flat OEM spring type.

2nd, what is the "Extra power base pin spring"? I don't recognize the spring in the picture unless it's for the cylinder retaining pin.

Of course everything is out of stock so I'll just keep an eye out, I haven't checked Midway yet but I don't expect they'll have 'em either.

[square butte]

What about ordering them direct from Wolff. Probably more expensive - But if they had them in stock you would not have to wait.

[Foto Joe]

Actually MidwayUSA has 'em in stock which surprised me. I'll order the set when we get home from the hospital.

[gunauthor]

Sort of like a reversed Murphy's law, if you have a spare, the one in your gun will never break. Thirty plus years ago, I bought a new Winchester shotgun and the ejector spring failed within the first couple hundred rounds. I bought two springs and haven't had to use the spare one (now watch, the next time I go shooting, the damned thing will fail)....

[MtGun44]

Flat springs break. Round wire springs do not.

[Foto Joe]

I get that but the picture on the "Flat spring pak" shows a wire spring. I suppose they probably just re-used the picture.

I would like to know what an "Extra power base pin spring" is though.

[Mk42gunner]

Stronger spring to help hold the cross in place so it doesn't let the base pin jump during recoil.

The only time I ever had that problem was with a Ruger SSM in .32 H&R Magnum.

Robert

[Foto Joe]

So the new spring kit came in from Midway a couple of weeks ago. The first thing I did was to install the wire trigger/bolt spring, no problem there. Following that I installed the new reduced tension main spring. The first thing I noticed was that while dis-assembled was that the new spring is a different profile and slightly shorter. After installation the hammer roller "barely" makes contact with the end of the main spring when cocked and if over cocked like can be done before the grip frame is re-installed it will go dismount itself at the end of travel. Once everything is put back together this doesn't seem to be an issue but I'll cover that at the end of this post. The first two items I replaced went without a hitch, that was about to end...

The next spring to get replaced was the base pin keeper spring. Replacement went fine but when I pushed the keeper to allow installation of the base pin I noted that it almost took two hands. I realize that some folks load 45 Colt stout enough to cause the base pin to "re-adjust" itself but I'm not one of those folks so the spring that would be suitable for a one ton truck had to go, here's where things went wrong.

When I went to put the original spring back in place and install on the frame I apparently dinged a thread on the approximately 2mm base pin screw or the nut I don't know which. What I do know is that there is no way I could get it threaded back together without forcing a cross thread. Once I admitted defeat I got on the computer and started searching for a replacement and quickly realized that they are indeed rare as hens teeth, not even Uberti has 'em. I finally located one at Numrich and got it on the way, it arrived earlier this week and I installed it Friday after work with no issues. I'm still hanging onto the old one in hopes that a machinist friend of mine can clean it up and I can have a spare, I really should have ordered two from Numrich just to make myself feel better. All in all I'm impressed with the replacement spring set with the exception of the base pin keeper spring and I didn't even try to replace the ejector spring as I like it the way it is.

I took this gun as well as a couple of lever guns out to the range yesterday. After putting a hundred rounds through this thing with the new springs I can honestly say I'm impressed. Although this particular SAA was slicked up with the help of one of the forum members a couple of years ago I always thought that it could use just a little more of something to get it right where I wanted it. Turns out the "something" was a lighter main spring and a wire trigger/bolt spring, I'm actually kind of surprised at the difference. I've got a matching SAA to this one only in 44-40 and blue and I think that one will be the next victim of the polishing stone and a spring upgrade. As far as the over travel of the hammer causing the main spring to dismount, once the grip frame was re-assembled it wasn't an issue and this included my ham fisted left thumb snapping that hammer back almost as soon as the gun went off.

[TXGunNut]

Glad you got her back together. I just finished replacing the main and bolt springs in all my Colts and Colt clones. Made a huge difference in my 3rd gen Colt, all the others were helped a good bit as well.

[mazo kid]

A "field expedient" for a broken trigger/bolt spring is a proper sized common safety pin, trimmed and slightly bent to fit. It will keep you shooting until you get a replacement, and you may even keep using it and keep the replacement ad a spare.