Mike Irwin
Staff
Friend of mine picked one of these up a few weeks ago, and wanted me to look it over.
It probably hadn't been disassembled in at least 50 years, possibly longer.
The trigger pull, to put it mildly, was HORRIBLE -- heavy and nasty. When I got inside, I found out why. All of the grease/oil that used to be into it had turned into something closely resembling varnish.
Not having disassembled a 1917 before, but having done a Detective Special, I at least had an inkling of what I was doing.
Believe it or not, the screws weren't too bad to get out. I was certain that I'd have to do the soldering iron trick on all of them.
The pin holding the rebound arm in place was frozen, but some Ed's Red/Kroil combination, and a close fitting punch, and I managed to clear it enough to get the rebound slide out.
Lots of soak time for the parts, along with vigorous rubbing with 4/0 steel wool to break the varnish.
Finally got it lubed and back together about 2 hours after we started.
Trigger is still heavy as hell, but it's very, very smooth now.
Given that I'm working most of the time on S&W revolvers, a thought ran through my head several times when I was working on this thing...
"The guys who designed this must have been HIGH!"
What amazes me is that the little little disk of metal that attaches the trigger to the hammer block...
It's unbelievably thin, and the end loop that fits around a stud on the hammer is almost non existent. Yet it works.
It works, but man, it still reminds me of a Rube Goldberg bit of machinery...
It probably hadn't been disassembled in at least 50 years, possibly longer.
The trigger pull, to put it mildly, was HORRIBLE -- heavy and nasty. When I got inside, I found out why. All of the grease/oil that used to be into it had turned into something closely resembling varnish.
Not having disassembled a 1917 before, but having done a Detective Special, I at least had an inkling of what I was doing.
Believe it or not, the screws weren't too bad to get out. I was certain that I'd have to do the soldering iron trick on all of them.
The pin holding the rebound arm in place was frozen, but some Ed's Red/Kroil combination, and a close fitting punch, and I managed to clear it enough to get the rebound slide out.
Lots of soak time for the parts, along with vigorous rubbing with 4/0 steel wool to break the varnish.
Finally got it lubed and back together about 2 hours after we started.
Trigger is still heavy as hell, but it's very, very smooth now.
Given that I'm working most of the time on S&W revolvers, a thought ran through my head several times when I was working on this thing...
"The guys who designed this must have been HIGH!"
What amazes me is that the little little disk of metal that attaches the trigger to the hammer block...
It's unbelievably thin, and the end loop that fits around a stud on the hammer is almost non existent. Yet it works.
It works, but man, it still reminds me of a Rube Goldberg bit of machinery...