S&W J Frame + Wolff spring kits - how hard?

[45 Long Colt]

Putting new Wolff springs in my Ruger SP101 was incredibly easy and greatly improved the DA trigger pull. It took no tools beyond a screwdriver to pull off the grip panels and no particular skill beyond reading the instructions, which were clear and concise.

Can anyone say how hard it is to do the equivalent job on a J frame S&W? Is it a thing that a wise man would tackle on his own?

 

[HSMITH]

Other than the rebound slide it is just as easy on the J-frame. You also must have the proper screwdriver to fit the sideplate screws or you will damage them.

Take the grips off and sideplate screws out, rap the grip frame with a wooden dowel or a plastic screwdriver handle and the sideplate will pop loose. The hammer block will probably fall out with the sideplate too. Cock the hammer slowlyand you will see a hole in the mainspring (hammerspring) guide rod, place a small pin or staple or something in it and lower the hammer gently, the pin will catch the spring and mainspring tension will be off the hammer, then you can wiggle a little and pull the guide rod out with the spring on it. Be careful, there is quite a bit of tension on it. Release the tension and remove the spring. Chuck the guide rod in a drill motor and lightly polish it, 400-600 paper works fine. Next is the rebound slide, you will see the spring inside with a pin holding it in the slide. You need to compress that spring slightly so you can lift the tail end of the slide above that pin. That spring is a lot stronger than you think, so wear glasses and don't point it at you etc. In all seriousness you should have some glasses on for the whole job. They make special tools for the rebound slide and they make life a LOT easier, but you can do it without them. When you see it you will see what needs to happen to get it out and back in. While you have the slide out polish the sides of it that contact the frame, and polish the frame where the slide contacts it. These two surfaces are generally about 85% of the stickyness or grit in a S&W DA mode. With all the springs out the hammer will lift right out if you slowly pull the trigger to the rear, near fully cocked is where it clearances out easily. Then the trigger will lift right out with a little wiggling. Clean well and put a dab of quality grease under each component and on the pins.

Re-assemble in opposite order. If you cleaned up the rebound slide surfaces I would put the factory springs back in. For sure I would use the factory mainspring, a little lighter trigger return (rebound slide) spring is usually not a problem at all unless extreme speed shooting. If you did a decent job the trigger will be vastly improved with all stock springs and reliability won't be compromised. If you put in a reduced weight mainspring I would not trust the gun or use it for defensive purposes.

Hope this helps.

 

[Standing Wolf]

If you put in a reduced weight mainspring I would not trust the gun or use it for defensive purposes.

I was with you all the way—great directions!—until the sentence quoted above. Some reduced weight main springs don't work reliably at all. Some do. The only way to tell is to put a few hundred rounds through the gun in both single and double action modes.

My pre-agreement model 60 didn't care for a reduced weight main spring, but took to a very light rebound slide spring like the proverbial "duck to water." My good old K-22 didn't care for its reduced weight main spring, either, but my model 27-2 works just fine with both a lighter main spring and the lightest available rebound slide spring. I think there's more variation in revolvers than most of us believe.

My rule of thumb is never to replace any springs without immediately putting a few hundred rounds through the gun. If it'll handle that much without posing problems, it'll most probably be good forever; conversely, if there's a single failure to fire in a couple hundred rounds, it's time to put the old springs back in.

 

[JNewell]

This is good advice. I've had the FTFs in several revolvers with reduced power mainsprings. If the gun might be used for anything other than defending yourself against chance attacks by paper bullseyes, I'd leave it stock. Even if I test a couple of hundred rounds of Brand B ammo with good results, every time you buy a new lot # you need to be concerned that they switched from primer X to primer Y and that the Y brand primers are harder to ignite...unless you want to test again. At some point burning up all that premium ammo every time you wind up with a new lot # is costly. I suppose you could lay in a case of the lot you test...dunno, in my old age I have come to like knowing that the gun is set up the way the manufacturer designed it so it'll go *bang* every time...

 

[45 Long Colt]

Gentlemen-

Thanks one and all.

Actually, I replaced the stock springs in my SP 101 long ago and ran several hundred of my own reloads through it with no problem. Since I use CCI primers, which are reputed to be very "hard," I considered the gun well-tested.

Never, before or since, through many thousands of rounds, has it failed to ignite a round.

I dry fired a J frame airweight recently at Sportsman's Warehouse (yes, they permitted it) and, if it's a typical specimen, the DA pull was not that bad, but could still benefit from improvement. It wasn't up to my SP 101's standards.

When I buy one, I'll probably do as HSMITH's excellent post suggests and see how polishing the action changes the "feel" and only go to spring replacement if that doesn't satisfy me.