Ruger MKIII disassembly (again) - hammer fell forward?

[allank]

This is just the Ruger MKIII "standard" disassembly as described in the manual. I've done this successfully before but appear to have messed up big time tonight. I successfully followed the steps in the manual up to #3 and removed the mainspring housing. At #4, removing the bolt, the bolt would not slide out. It was hanging up on something internally - I could hear a metallic sound as I pulled it back and it only retracted about 1". I reinserted the mainspring housing (with hindsight maybe not the best idea) thinking I could redo the procedure and correct this problem.

Unfortunately now the mainspring housing will not swing out - it is also catching on something. And I don't know where to go from here. Searching around I found a previous discussion Ruger Mark III Problem that talks about various hammer/sear issues during reassembly.

Is the only solution now to drift out the pins? Unless I can get some more detailed instructions online somewhere as to which pins, and in which order, I probably require the services of a gun smith or will have to send it back to Ruger. Pretty irritating, as I wanted a friend to use it this week.

Any other suggestions or help?

 

[allank]

Don't you hate it when you solve your own problem after admitting defeat and going public!

With nothing better to do I just manipulated the pistol with a magazine inserted without using force for 5 to 10 minutes: pulling the trigger, pulling on the mainspring housing, pulling the bolt, tapping the pistol with it pointed forwards etc. At some point something moved and the mainspring rotated out and could be removed followed by the bolt.

The Dr Bullseye's Mark III Detailed Breakdown Description, and the Troubleshooting page will be helpful in future.