Ruger Mk II Issue(s)

[Dave Schwaab]

So, if the hammer was in the fired position when you forced the bolt back with the cleaning rod, I'm thinking you could have bent the Hammer Pivot Pin, maybe even did some damage to the Sear or Disconnector Link.

Try comparing those parts to the ones in the good gun.

Looking at the Instruction Manual, that's the best possibility that I can see happening.

Hope this helps.

Dave

 

[1chessiefan]

Dear Dave Schwaab,
Thank you for your thoughts. I will take it apart to see if anything was bent and report back.

1chessiefan

 

[Dan in MI]

Apparently I wasn't clear. I would do as Dave suggested and compare the internals.

Regarding the taper pin to align the upper and lower. Yes, that can help, but at this point I would still be trying to assemble without the upper and bolt. The MSH should go in place and the pistol should function as if it were in place.

 

[wagwan]

I have one MK II where the receiver can twist a little bit going onto the frame. No amount of tapping backwards or forwards will align it well enough for the pin to go in. Once I realized this, I am very careful to eliminate any twist on reassembly and life is now good.
So check for side to side alignment (twist) as well as front / back.

 

[Johnnu2]

Don't forget .... us OLD folks have a bit of a vision problem that makes re-assembly even MORE difficult.... I have a slab side Mk II but went out and bought a Mk IV Lite and never bother with the Mk II anymore.

J.

 

[Gopher]

Then there is this.

 

[JStacy]

You have to make sure your grip frame is fully seated on your receiver. The receiver should extend over the top of the grip frame 1/8" or so when fully seated. Otherwise, sometimes the hold open lever pops up and keeps the bolt from going into the receiver. If you bolt goes in part of the way them stops, press down on the hold open lever and see if the bolt slides in the rest of the way easily. If this does not work review the previous recommendations again.

 

[BuckRimfire]

Then there is this.

That's not a terrible idea.

I should dig into one of my MkIIs to remind myself how tricky it is to get the hammer strut into the right position. It's been a few months. My memory is that as long as you angle the barrel upward while pushing the hammer back, this modification isn't necessary.

My take is that MkIIs run fine even when quite dirty, and I don't have the religious "all guns must be cleaned every day" attitude (which may be because I've never lived anywhere really humid). At the frequency with which I want to take mine apart, a little extra convenience isn't a top priority, but for fifteen bucks, I wouldn't say "no" to this part if someone was offering me one face to face.

How much hell breaks loose if you pull the pin out too far and that little spring slips off of it? That's the sear spring, right?

 

[Dave Schwaab]

As I said when I first mentioned the Hammer Strut Support, I haven't felt the need to do this simple mod. Thanks to his earlier video, I am well aware that the Hammer Strut likes to get caught by that pin and simply check to avoid it.

Here again is that earlier video, which I think is the absolute best video on the reassembly of the Mark I, II and III series pistols.


I suggest everyone either download that video, or make a note of it's location, and watch it from time to time. Keeping his suggestions in mind when trying to reassemble your gun should easily avoid the mistakes usually made.

Dave

 

[jimbo1096]

I bought one of the strut supports several years back and can say it makes reassembling my standard much easier. Now I need to get another for the MKII. As far as helping with the OPs problem, can't add anything to what has already been suggested. Firm belief you bent or wacked something up.
Good videos on both.

 

[1chessiefan]

Friends,
An update. Yesterday I removed the hammer and sear and compared them to some spares I have. The parts from my problem child do not differ from the spares. There was no visible damage. I was able to insert the mainspring pin into the grip frame but could not get the mainspring housing to fully go into the grip frame. The hammer would not allow it to pivot far enough to lock it down. I have some further fiddling to do this coming weekend and Dan in MI has graciously offered to FaceTime to provide further assistance. I plan on taking him up on his kind offer.

1chessiefan

 

[Dave Schwaab]

Good luck working on your gun with Dan. Hope the two of you have success.

I remember the time I did something dumb with my 22/45, the original Mark II version, and the whole thing locked up solid. Nothing would move at all! I can't remember now what I did wrong, but I fixed it by pushing every pin out of the gun and dumping the internals on the table. Then I put the gun back together from that bare frame and it all worked perfectly again.

While I was at it, I made sure to leave the ball detent and spring out of the bolt stop, so that I could slingshot the bolt on a fresh mag instead of having to use the bolt release. Glad I did that mod.

Dave

 

[Johnnu2]

LET US KNOW....

That face time thingie is a great idea.

J.

 

[Dan in MI]

Just got off the phone. This was a little more involved than expected, BUT it reminded me of two things I KNOW and should have addressed early on.
1) If you are having the issue; -- Make sure you tell your diagnostician EVERYTHING that has been done, or happened in recent times.
2) If you are doing the diagnosing -- ASK, has anything else been done, no matter how insignificant? (these rules apply to anything)

In this case we (I) weren't aware of a new trigger with pre and over travel screws. And dummy me didn't ask.

All of the original story was post issue and actually not related, therefore muddying up the issue. The root cause was the over travel screw was in a tad too much and did not allow the sear to clear the hammer and therefore the hammer couldn't fall forward to reassemble. Once I realized that, it was easy, but it took an hour to get there.

I have seen this before. Everything is in place and test functions fine. A few dozen shots later something settles just a tiny bit and now the trigger screws are fighting against each other causing a bigger issue.

 

[1chessiefan]

Dear Friends,
Dan in MI and I had a long face time session today. He figured out that my main problem was the set screws in the trigger had moved slightly and prevented the pistol from resetting. I tweaked the set screws and was able to get the pistol back together by twisting the barrel/receiver slightly to align the holes for the mainspring.pin. I really appreciate Dan in MI's willingness to work with me to resolve this problem. I was at my wits end. He is a top notch gentleman and an incredible asset to this forum and it's members. I was blessed by his willingness to help me. Dan in MI I want to publicly thank you for your kindness!

Sincerely,

1chessiefan

 

[Dave Schwaab]

Glad to hear you were able to get your gun straightened out. To be fair, you did mention the recent "action job", you simply omitted that that included a target trigger with an over travel screw, and none of us caught that detail.

I've been shooting for over 60 years, and I very rarely ever modify my guns, except for the sights. I put a FastFire III on one of my Mark IIs and Fire Sights on the rest. They really do help with my older eyes.

 

[Dan in MI]

In case someone is taking it that way, I was in no way insinuating that Chessiefan did anything wrong.

I have spent my life in a field involving diagnosing problems, often remotely with no access, just phone or emails. This was a clear reminder to me, and hopefully a tip for others, whenever you have an issue try to think of any, and every, little change that happened prior to the fault. First step at that point is to undo, or verify the function of that change.

I cannot tell you how may times something seemingly totally unrelated, and minor, was the root cause, but ignored in early diagnosis as too insignificant to bother with.

 

[rugerguy]

....good job and that is why most of the time we have to say "without actually SEEING it" cannot tell just what is happening, or going on........

too many "kitchen gunsmiths" just gotta take things apart and try to make things better, when in fact "left alone" they just seem to keep on working.....wait till something actually "breaks or goes WRONG".........

 

[Dan in MI]

....good job and that is why most of the time we have to say "without actually SEEING it" cannot tell just what is happening, or going on........

too many "kitchen gunsmiths" just gotta take things apart and try to make things better, when in fact "left alone" they just seem to keep on working.....wait till something actually "breaks or goes WRONG".........

As long as you don't include basement smith's in that sentence......