Winchester 1885 coil mainspring question.

[Jedman]

Is there a difference in the mainspring tension between a low wall in a centerfire caliber and the Winder musket in 22 RF ? I’m speaking of the coil spring. Thanks
Jedman

[Chill Wills]

So far as I know, all the parts are the same except that which interact with the coil spring and there is no choice on coil springs. I have some of both actions.
BTW, Coil Springs are hard to come by and the one new made replacement, I forget who supplies it, is slightly ... not the same as an original and can give trouble in some rifles. Close but not exact in my experience.

If I am not mistaken, it takes more oomph in a rim fire than a center fire.
Sorry. Not much help here.

[Rapier]

Can't Brownell's replicate the coil spring diameter and length? Just curious, as I have replaced a number of single shot hammer springs from one of Brownell's multi coil spring tube kits. Have not replaced an 85 hammer spring, so far. Would like to know what does work, if I get one in for repair.

[Jedman]

My problem is I have a low wall that was rebarreled to 45 Colt and I am getting light primer strikes and FTF’s. I have checked the firing pin tip, the protrusion is good and was wondering if there was anything wrong with the mainspring. It doesn’t have much of a snap when you fire it.
Has anyone had to replace a coil 1885 spring from being weak ?
The rifle was made in 1918 and is in excellent condition, just trying to figure why it doesn’t go bang ❗️
Jedman

[Green Frog]

I’ve never anyone to have an original Winchester 1885 coil mainspring break or weaken in use… folks have figured out ways to mess them up, but that’s another matter. Make sure the firing pin channel in the block is clean and smooth and the hammer isn’t dragging on the frame. Otherwise, I’ll wish you luck finding a replacement. The good news, they stay good for a long time once they’re right.
Froggie

[Jedman]

Well I removed the spring and to me it looks like it’s partially compressed at rest. I believe I will get a new spring. This is the first time I have messed with a 1885 but from pics I see on the internet the spring should be more V shaped where the arms that attach to the breech block should be much farther away from hammer side ? Those of you that have worked on these, what do you think ?
Jedman

[Bent Ramrod]

I bought a replacement 1885 coil spring from DZ Arms for $35. It looks like your picture.

Installation is covered in one of Campbell's books on the Winchester Single Shot. You need to grind a groove or notch in the blade of a cheap screwdriver to move the second end into its proper hole, against considerable spring tension. When properly installed the hammer is under noticeable tension even resting against the firing pin. Could yours have been turned around, perhaps to make the wrong installation easier to do?

Even when properly installed, I find the flat spring action more "snappy" while the coil spring feels kind of "squishy." But that was the way to go if you had to have the takedown model, and then I guess they took over because of the bean-counter fiendishness for standardization. But both should fire primers reliably.

[Jedman]

Thanks to all that replyed. I don’t know how you could install his spring wrong and still have tension on the hammer but I believe it must have been wrong. I reinstalled the spring and it now has much more snap to the hammer. I looked for help online for the “ easy way “ to install the spring but found nothing!
The way I ended up getting it to go was, I installed the spring on the hammer, did not install the pin thru the breech block, the first spring leg wasn’t too hard to get in the small hole but the second leg took a lot f effort and cursing ! Then I was able to use channel lock pliers to squeeze the hammer down to align with the hole for the cross pin and with my third hand get the pin installed.
Now I am having a bit of a time getting the trigger / sear engagement to work properly. The hammer fly that is on this hammer left the hammer at full cock before I took it apart now it wants to slip by the full cock notch and go to half cock but it’s not 100 % and is scary.
I will keep at it until I get it right, this action is probably not to hard to work with once you do it a few times but it was quite challenging for me ! Thanks
Jedman