Marlin Model 88 Firing Pin- Does this look right?

[John 242]

I'm working on a Marlin Model 88. I had never heard of one before and there doesn't seem to be a lot of information or parts available for one of these things.
It was missing the firing pin so I went ahead and ordered one from Numrich.

I dropped the firing pin into the bolt body and after some head scratching I noticed that there's a cross pin that I suppose is meant to hold the firing pin in place. Odd that the cross pin was installed but there's no pin. I did a little more head scratching and went ahead and STARTED to remove the cross pin. The key word was "started," because although it moved at first, my 1/16-inch punch broke about halfway through. I tried to move the broke off punch and the remaining part of the cross pin, but they were both jammed and bent my starter punch. I ended up having to mill out both the punch and pin with a carbide 1/16 end mill. Fun times.
Cross pin hole:
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The two towards the top are what's left of the factory cross pin and my punch. On the bottom is the replacement pin.
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So, with the cross pin removed, all I should have to do is drop the replacement firing pin in and install the cross pin. No problem... except that the cross pin cannot be installed with the firing pin in place. The head blocks the cross pin, preventing it from being driven through. I experimented with leaving the cross pin out, but the firing pin falls back out of the bolt body and jams the bolt from going all the way to the rear.

Rather than modifying the firing pin I got from Numrich, I made a replacement out of drill rod, that way I could do a little experimenting.

This is what works so far: The bottom pin is the shop made pin. The pin on top is what I received from Numrich Below the two firing pins is a replacement cross pin. The part to the right of the two pins is what Numrich calls the "striker." It's held to the rear by the sear and springs forward to 'strike' the rear of the firing pin.
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The head of the shop made pin is a little long, and I can turn it down, but I'm not sure it matters. I wanted to make sure that the nose of the 'striker' won't get close to the cross pin.

After wrecking a prototype, this version actually seems to work. Firing pin protrusion is about .030 or so and when retracted it doesn't protrude into the breach face. So far so good. I haven't test fired yet, but wanted to see if anyone else has replaced a broken firing pin in an Marlin Model 88 or has any suggestions.
Thanks,
John T.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Nice lathe work, John. I have to confess that I never worked on one of these, although I made many firing pins. Have you been able to find a picture or drawing of the Mod. 88 pin? Perhaps on Numrich's website, The Book of Exploded Firearms Drawings, the Jack First Catalog, etc., etc.? You might also check with Marlin for a parts diagram. It's always possible that Numrich sent the wrong part, but also possible that during the production life of the firearm it was redesigned. Marlin is kind of known for doing that, for example different versions of the Mod. 60 semi-auto, etc.

[44man]

I have the old Encyclopedia of Modern Firearms, circa 1960 and the pin looks like the one you received from Gun Parts.
I don't remember but I believe the pin goes in front of the boss to limit extension to prevent the pin from hitting the breech face.

[John 242]

Der Gebirgsjager, thanks for the compliment. I did a cursory search on the web, but I should probably do a more thorough one. What I have seen points to the part looking like the one that Numrich sent me.
I think you're right in that Marlin may have changed the design of the pin, but I'm really not sure. I was hoping that someone on here had a Model 88 with a pin similar to the one I made, so I know I'm on the right track.

44man, everything I've seen so far tends to agree with you, but unless I'm overlooking the obvious, the firing pin tip won't protrude from the breach face if it's behind the cross pin.

I get about .030 of firing pin tip protrusion with the Numrich firing pin shoved all the way forward without the cross pin installed.
With the Numrich firing pin and the cross pin installed, I don't believe I had any protrusion at all. I will double check this though, just to be sure. It wouldn't be the first time that I couldn't see the forest because the trees were in the way.

Thanks for the help guys,

John T.

PS... I believe it's an 88C. Still researching...

[John 242]

Check this out... This is a Marlin 89C, which is Marlins version of the 88C with a detachable box magazine.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1hpc-k28Cg

Still researching...

Cool picture, but doesn't help. This should be an 88 DL.

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According to what I've found so far, the 88C was introduced in 1946 and the 88DL (Deluxe) in 1953. Both were dropped in 1956.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

170970If the cross pin limits the forward travel of the firing pin, then your answer might be in removing metal from the area indicated in red.

DG

[John 242]

If the cross pin limits the forward travel of the firing pin, then your answer might be in removing metal from the area indicated in red.

DG

Roger that. I though about that, but I watched this video and I went went the opposite direction. Check out where the guy talks about the firing pin at 9:46. I take Youtube videos with a grain of salt, but this seems to agree with the video I linked to above.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTlIzfyvNQc

Kind of odd, though. These guns were only made for 10 years so there can't be a bunch of variations. I must be missing something.

The quality of the video isn't great and he doesn't remove the pin. If he did, it would have been hard to see anyway.

[John 242]

Here are the differences between firing pin protrusion, or lack there of, with the cross pin installed in front of the Numrich firing pin-
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Here is the shop made firing pin, with the cross pin installed, at max protrusion-
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I managed to test fire the Marlin Model 88 yesterday and the shop made firing pin worked great. Good solid hits on the rims and no issues there. Unfortunately the gun double-fed and wouldn't cycle the next round from the magazine.
Back to the drawing boards. Fixing the firing pin was easy, but feed problems suck.

[44man]

A rim fire .22 was a huge problem long ago. The pin beat the the end of the barrel until they corrected it so even dry firing did not hit steel. A pin or a limit to pin protrusion finally came about.