[Hawg1223]

A friend of mine brought me a Colt 1903 that he found under his fathers bed after his father had passed. The pistol was missing the extractor and extractor spring. I found these and replaced, when test fired the pistol worked fine. I then detail striped it to clean it really well and make sure everything else looked fine. After reassembly, it now will fire, extract, load another round, but the hammer won't stay cocked. If you rack the slide, it will then fire again, but with the same results. I am pretty sure that the sear spring is in contact with the sear and disconnecter. The recoil spring is crooked but worked the action prior to the detail strip. Any ideas on what might be the problem?

 

[G21.45]

OK, I'll take an educated guess. One of the fingers on the leaf spring isn't making contact with the sear. You need to put more of a bend into it in order to hold the sear in engagement with the hammer.

Here's the schematic -

Colt Pocket 32, Hammerless

Remove the grip safety, again; look to see which spring finger should be pressing on the sear; give it a little more bend in toward the sear. I think this'll do it for ya.




EDITED: Here I found this on the net. It give a pretty good explanation of how the main spring fingers work -

http://www.realguns.com/Commentary/comar58.htm

 

[Hawg1223]

G21.45 thanks for the response. I took her apart again last night, and added a bit more bend to the sear spring. Again I made sure that the spring stayed in contact with the sear and disconnecter. (boy, putting one of these back together is an exercise in patience). Anyway, long and short is, she's working again now. Thanks again.

 

[ScottG]

The recoil spring is crooked but worked the action prior to the detail strip.

Thanks for posting that info. Mine has a bent, or rather, downward angled recoil spring too. Is it the usual way for it, or perhaps it's old?

 

[G21.45]

Perhaps this will help -

Colt Pocket 32 Spring

 

[Hawg1223]

I've also got a .380 model, the recoil spring in it is straight, so I believe they are supposed to be straight. I've seen people in gun shops and at shows try to field strip the little pistols and let the spring get loose while trying to put it back together. Could be where they get bent.

 

[G21.45]

Exactly!

 

[BigBeerBellyMan]

EDIT: I decided to just start a new thread for my problem. Here: http://www.firearmstalk.com/forums/f33/1903-colt-32-hammerless-slide-problem-16933/