OldePhart
Blackhawk
...and very loudly, sounds like a stinking grackle...
So, I got this new SP-101 (3" .357), picked it up Wednesday or Thursday. It seemed fine at the gun shop - good finish on the visible parts, very, very tight lock up, small BC gap, etc. Very heavy and rough DA trigger but, hey, I don't expect much better than that these days. Figured I'd dry/live fire it a few hundred times before worrying about the trigger.
So, I had it home and was dry firing it a bit...I noticed that it had a very loud "chirp" on reset. After a while (maybe 100-150 dry fire pulls over the course of several hours...did I mention that the pull is pretty heavy?) the trigger started occasionally failing to reset fully. It would hang up at about the last 1/8" of forward travel. Another thirty or forty more times on the trigger and it was to the point it was failing to fully reset maybe two out of three times. It didn't matter whether I released the trigger slowly or rapidly. Obviously a problem.
This is my first Ruger DA but not my first DA revolver nor my first action job so I figured I'd detail strip it and see what's up.
After a little careful work with a stone and a felt wheel I've got it functioning reliably, and more smoothly, but of course still a heavy pull but I can live with that on a carry weapon like the SP-101.
It still has noticeable chirp on reset, though, although the DA pull is much smoother now and the reset is reliable. The chirp is not quite as loud, but still very noticeable.
It seemed that the main problem that was hanging up the reset is that the transfer bar is a very sloppy fit (i.e. the "pin" portion of it is much smaller diameter than the hole it seats in) allowing it to rock side to side, and the outer side of the transfer bar (where it rides against the inside of the frame and has to "re-seat" in the trigger housing as the trigger moves forward) was very rough with chatter marks along its entire length - and the lower edge that had to pass the trigger housing was very sharp and square.
Anyway, I stoned the outside edge of the transfer bar until it was flat (discovering that not only was it "chattered" but was also "bowed" somewhat), then very slightly rounded over the lower outside edge where it has to pass the trigger housing to re-seat, and then polished those surfaces.
I also very lightly polished (with felt wheel only) the mating surfaces of the cylinder stop cam and the trigger plunger that activates it (this was the only other "mating point" that is active at about the point in the cycle where the trigger was failing to reset - i.e. the plunger has to ride up over the cam at that point). I didn't really want to do this, because it can affect timing, but it was pretty rough. It did affect timing a little. Initially the stop wouldn't pop up against the cylinder until literally just as the next slot came up. I've never seen a revolver that tightly timed and it had impressed me. It drops a little earlier now but I'd rather have a reliable revolver with a bit of ring on the cylinder than one that doesn't ring the cylinder but doesn't always reset.
I also very lightly stoned the "fence" off the inside of the frame on both sides, and removed the rough flashing sticking up from where the slot for the cylinder stop was cut. All in all the action is much better now, though still heavy, and the trigger reset seems reliable (no failures in another 100 or so dry-firing cycles).
However, it's still got a fairly prominent "chirp" on reset - nowhere near as loud as before, but definitely a case of metal protesting about being rubbed against metal.
So my question is this, does anybody have any experience with "chirping" SP-101's and, if so, what did you do to fix it? It's obviously a metal-to-metal squeal somewhere and the noise doesn't bother me so much as the thought that anything that is protesting that much is a problem waiting to happen...
John
So, I got this new SP-101 (3" .357), picked it up Wednesday or Thursday. It seemed fine at the gun shop - good finish on the visible parts, very, very tight lock up, small BC gap, etc. Very heavy and rough DA trigger but, hey, I don't expect much better than that these days. Figured I'd dry/live fire it a few hundred times before worrying about the trigger.
So, I had it home and was dry firing it a bit...I noticed that it had a very loud "chirp" on reset. After a while (maybe 100-150 dry fire pulls over the course of several hours...did I mention that the pull is pretty heavy?) the trigger started occasionally failing to reset fully. It would hang up at about the last 1/8" of forward travel. Another thirty or forty more times on the trigger and it was to the point it was failing to fully reset maybe two out of three times. It didn't matter whether I released the trigger slowly or rapidly. Obviously a problem.
This is my first Ruger DA but not my first DA revolver nor my first action job so I figured I'd detail strip it and see what's up.
After a little careful work with a stone and a felt wheel I've got it functioning reliably, and more smoothly, but of course still a heavy pull but I can live with that on a carry weapon like the SP-101.
It still has noticeable chirp on reset, though, although the DA pull is much smoother now and the reset is reliable. The chirp is not quite as loud, but still very noticeable.
It seemed that the main problem that was hanging up the reset is that the transfer bar is a very sloppy fit (i.e. the "pin" portion of it is much smaller diameter than the hole it seats in) allowing it to rock side to side, and the outer side of the transfer bar (where it rides against the inside of the frame and has to "re-seat" in the trigger housing as the trigger moves forward) was very rough with chatter marks along its entire length - and the lower edge that had to pass the trigger housing was very sharp and square.
Anyway, I stoned the outside edge of the transfer bar until it was flat (discovering that not only was it "chattered" but was also "bowed" somewhat), then very slightly rounded over the lower outside edge where it has to pass the trigger housing to re-seat, and then polished those surfaces.
I also very lightly polished (with felt wheel only) the mating surfaces of the cylinder stop cam and the trigger plunger that activates it (this was the only other "mating point" that is active at about the point in the cycle where the trigger was failing to reset - i.e. the plunger has to ride up over the cam at that point). I didn't really want to do this, because it can affect timing, but it was pretty rough. It did affect timing a little. Initially the stop wouldn't pop up against the cylinder until literally just as the next slot came up. I've never seen a revolver that tightly timed and it had impressed me. It drops a little earlier now but I'd rather have a reliable revolver with a bit of ring on the cylinder than one that doesn't ring the cylinder but doesn't always reset.
I also very lightly stoned the "fence" off the inside of the frame on both sides, and removed the rough flashing sticking up from where the slot for the cylinder stop was cut. All in all the action is much better now, though still heavy, and the trigger reset seems reliable (no failures in another 100 or so dry-firing cycles).
However, it's still got a fairly prominent "chirp" on reset - nowhere near as loud as before, but definitely a case of metal protesting about being rubbed against metal.
So my question is this, does anybody have any experience with "chirping" SP-101's and, if so, what did you do to fix it? It's obviously a metal-to-metal squeal somewhere and the noise doesn't bother me so much as the thought that anything that is protesting that much is a problem waiting to happen...
John