Mark III problem - hammer won't lock in place

[Phoenix Maximus]

bought a used Mark III, everything is great until I get curious and pull back on the latch, now the latch won't swing up or come out, the hammer won't cock and the slide release is iffy at best, clearly some springs are not right. No idea what to do cause I can't get the damn latch out to strip it.... any ideas?? hope I didn't break my christmas present already!

 

[Ski]

Go to the following page and look part way down the "stickies".

http://www.guntalk-online.com/forum/vie ... 4ad6b9919e

Likely as not, your hammer strut is out of place and you should find instructions at the above link to resolve that....

 

[Phoenix Maximus]

when in doubt, smack the crap out of it. got it fixed, what a Rosie O'Donnell to get that latch back in.... smacking it helped, later punching my work table proved to be helpful as well

 

[Phoenix Maximus]

good link, saved it to the favorites list for future reference. thanks!

 

[Geezer]

Remove the magazine.

 

[Phoenix Maximus]

Remove the magazine.

had done that, it never mattered whether it was in or out, both ways the latch was jammed... fixed it by beating it on the ground

 

[bada61265]

im its a goofy mechanism, even worse with the mkiii gyrations. the latch pin can slide out of place and may lock up the works , hammer strut probubly slipped out too. ive had all 3 versions, same issues.

 

[Milly]

Yeah, it doesn't take much to get them out of wack. I got my Mark III .22/45 stripped down ok but spent a lot of time trying to get everthing lined back up to put it back together right.

 

[zenbiker]

This video is all you need!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYHJm2P4kP0

 

[raw6464]

bought a used Mark III, everything is great until I get curious and pull back on the latch, now the latch won't swing up or come out, the hammer won't cock and the slide release is iffy at best, clearly some springs are not right. No idea what to do cause I can't get the damn latch out to strip it.... any ideas?? hope I didn't break my christmas present already!

Once you open the latch your committed. You can't just close it back up because the strut falls off the main spring and gets' jammed in the bolt stop/main spring mechanism.

Once opened you need to go thru the last part of the re-assembly procedure where you push the hammer forward, point the gun down, install the bolt stop into the barrel, point the gun up and close the bolt stop.