Colt Wedge

S

smokepole14

New member
I just got my new Uberti 62 police in today. This is my first colt clone so I'm sure you all have heard this before, but what is the basics on the wedge. How far should it be in right now I have it just flush on the side opposite of the screw. The cylinder is kinda hard to turn and I see no gap between the cylinder at all. Should I back the wedge out a tad more? I made a wedge remover out of a piece of wooden dowel. Also how far should the screw be screwed in? Any help will be greatly appreciated.
 
On that pistol....

....I find in practice that the setting of the screw iss not all that critical. For me it is enough to set the screw so as to hold the wedge in the barrel when it is pulled out for barrel removal. Kind of keeps the wedge from falling all the way out.

You can back the wedge out slightly and your cylinder should loosen up.

The wedge with "seat" eventually. Some call the wedge a consumable part. I guess that is accurate.

On the few new pistols I have bought I found essentially what you are seeing. The wedge seats such that the tip is about flush with the surface of the barrel. Then eventually it wears to the point where it is protruding above the surface of the barrel.
 
I can now start to see a little bit of gap and I have heard they will loosen up over time. The fit and finish is great, but I've noticed when I back the hammer slowly the timing and lockup is perfect. When I cock the hammer pretty quick the cylinder go just a tad to far and doesn't lock up. I'm guessing the hand spring is a little too long. If that is the problem I'm assuming this is an easy fix, since I done had to replace the hand and refile for my remmy.
 
What you have is a late bolt drop and has nothing to do with the hand spring. The bolt should ideally drop into the lead prior to the cylinder cutout. If it drops right into the cutout it will work when slow cycled but with rapid cocking shoot past the cutout. The fix is to remove a tiny bit from the leg of the bolt that rides on the cam causing the bolt to drop a bit earlier.
 
The wedge screw on a repro has no function except to keep the wedge from coming all the way out on disassembly as Doc said. Just leave it screwed all the way in. Once the wedge gets a little wear on it it will go through further and you will be able to put it in and take it out with thumb pressure.
 
I 2nd olmontanaboy's recomendation to read the above article. I read this a while ago and immediately checked my Uberti 3rd Dragoon and Walker. The Dragoon was perfect and the Walker was actually a hair long and I still have to slap the end of the barrel to get it to seat. Also, My wedge problem with the walkers wedge spring being bent (by me trying to force it) was resolved by usage as well.
enjoy
 
Here is the last part of the Uberti short arbor fix article. I find it incredable that these new Uberti Colt clones have this problem. I have two newer Colt models from Uberti a navy and an army and both suffer short arbors. I use them for display purposes. I'm told Pietta Colt clones don't have this problem but the modern garish barrel stampings turn me away from them. I also have two Uberti Remingtons copys, a 36 and a 44 that I shoot and am very satisified with. If Uberti would fix the short arbor design I would reccomend them again. Below is the next article on how to fix your new Uberti. http://www.theopenrange.net/articles/Tuning_the_Uberti_Open_Top_Revolvers_Part_4.pdf
I had the two Uberti Colts for a good while before I discovered the short arbor problem or I would have demanded that Uberti install the correct length arbors or refund my money.
 
Italian Colts with short arbors is the norm. It's a easy fix with a spacer machined to the correct thickness and set into the arbor hole on the barrel lug.

Spacer for a .30 49'er

spacer02Medium.jpg
 
So is the short arbor part of my problem with the gun not locking up? Right now iam more concerned with the cylinder not locking up when I cock it fast. Also where do you get the buttons if I do have to fix the arbor. Thanks for your help so far guys!
 
Well not to argue with you, but with the two I have the arbor hole bored in the barrels of both of mine have a concave bottom, not at all square and the flat spacers I tried wanted to cock to one side or another. I did try a series of spacers required to bottom out the arbor in the arbor hole and found that I had too large a barrel/cylinder gap in both revolvers when the arbor was bottemed and square with the frame and I would have to machine the frame to tighten it up to acceptable standards. I think Uberti is aware of this condition and figures it's cheaper to let the customer set the barrel gap with the wedge than to properly fit the arbor to the arbor hole. That is not the way it was designed to work, setting the barrel gap that way tourques the barrel upwards as can be seen by the pie shaped gap when held up to the light. I don't think most of the people buying these guns are aware of this, I know I wasn't. I would be willing to pay more for the revolver if that's what it would take to have it made to work right out of the box the way it was orgionaly designed to do.
Was the arbor hole square and flat in the barrel of your revolver and how did you measure to determine the correct thickness of your spacer? Again I don't mean to sound sour or to argue and I do like the revolvers otherwise but I guess I'm a bit of a perfectionist:D
 
So is the short arbor part of my problem with the gun not locking up? Right now iam more concerned with the cylinder not locking up when I cock it fast. Also where do you get the buttons if I do have to fix the arbor. Thanks for your help so far guys!

No, that is a seperate problen. The short arbor is causing the cylinder to lock up or be hard to rotate when the wedge is inserted all the way.
 
smokepole14 said:
So is the short arbor part of my problem with the gun not locking up? Right now iam more concerned with the cylinder not locking up when I cock it fast. Also where do you get the buttons if I do have to fix the arbor. Thanks for your help so far guys!
Click to expand...

Post #8 describes a way to fix a short arbor using small washers as shims. Dropping them into the arbor hole of the barrel assembly helps to create more room for the cylinder to turn. The washer may need to be filed to make them the right thickness so that the wedge will still line up with the wedge slot for insertion. Small brass washers are available at the hardware store or cut some round disks out of an aluminum can or anything else that will serve the same purpose.
And have some extras on hand in case a shim is lost during disassembly.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=483730#post6012593

Similar methods for shimming the arbor were also described in posts #14 & #18:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=6510414#post6510414

Washers, shims and shim stock material can also be purchased from Mcmaster-Carr:

http://www.mcmaster.com/#shims/=jod51v

http://www.mcmaster.com/#washers/=jodcnf
 
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Ok guys I think the arbor length is fine. The gap is good and the cylinder turns easy. My biggest problem now is the cylinder not locking up when I cock the hammer fast. I've tried filing the leg on the bolt a little at a time but so far it's like nothing has changed. Should I file it a little more? Also the lever latch moves left and right very eaisly by thumb pressure, should this happen as well?
 
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