dakota.potts
New member
Took in a family gun to work on in class. Did a complete detail strip where I disassembled everything that wasn't riveted in place. Every pin, spring everything else out of the gun. Every part fully disassembled from the bolt, trigger group and everything else. Did a complete cleaning as the gun desperately needed, having not been cleaned in a couple decades.
Turns out disassembling the thing is a lot easy than getting it back together.
I got most of the bolt group together OK and finally got the magazine catch back in after over an hour of fighting with it.
Now I have to re-install the fire control group and it is a nightmare lining everything up correctly and holding it in place. The design using coil springs for everything instead of flat springs doesn't help at all, as they are a really expletive (of your choosing) to hold in the correct orientation and compress while pushing pins in place. I can get most of the parts together individually but when it comes time to put them all in place (for instance, the safety piece with the hammer assembly with the transfer bar) things get really tight and are difficult to manipulate while trying to line them all up for the pins.
The use of slave pins has helped but not much. Anybody have any hints for how to do this? I looked to see if there were any jigs or anything available but the only thing I can find is the tool for re-assembling the mainspring.
I'm sure I'm missing something here but the gun is giving me fits to get back together and the disassembly books are god-awful at providing guidance for re-assembly. Tips would be much appreciated.
The gun is a Ruger auto 1976 bi-centennial edition with a 4 3/4" barrel. I don't know if it is a MK. I or not but it lacks the separate bolt hold open feature.
Turns out disassembling the thing is a lot easy than getting it back together.
I got most of the bolt group together OK and finally got the magazine catch back in after over an hour of fighting with it.
Now I have to re-install the fire control group and it is a nightmare lining everything up correctly and holding it in place. The design using coil springs for everything instead of flat springs doesn't help at all, as they are a really expletive (of your choosing) to hold in the correct orientation and compress while pushing pins in place. I can get most of the parts together individually but when it comes time to put them all in place (for instance, the safety piece with the hammer assembly with the transfer bar) things get really tight and are difficult to manipulate while trying to line them all up for the pins.
The use of slave pins has helped but not much. Anybody have any hints for how to do this? I looked to see if there were any jigs or anything available but the only thing I can find is the tool for re-assembling the mainspring.
I'm sure I'm missing something here but the gun is giving me fits to get back together and the disassembly books are god-awful at providing guidance for re-assembly. Tips would be much appreciated.
The gun is a Ruger auto 1976 bi-centennial edition with a 4 3/4" barrel. I don't know if it is a MK. I or not but it lacks the separate bolt hold open feature.