1858 remington conversion mainspring.

[Virginia Mike]

Not sure of the terminology, but the hammer on my two pistols is a bit hard to pull back.  Does anyone have a source for a lighter spring or any type of adjustment?

Any other mods folks have done to these guns? 

Thanks,

Virginia Mike

[Marshal Will Wingam]

I copied my own post from another thread on this about lightening the mainspring, which is just about all these Remingtons need. Depending on what you have, there may be lighter mainsprings available for your pistol. I just modify mine.

I tried a pair of the VTI light springs in my Remmies and they wouldn't set off the primers, either. I went back to lightening mine. Here's a photo of one that has been ground down. Be sure to polish the grind marks longitudinally so the spring won't break on one of them. Also, do it carefully so you don't take the temper out of the spring. Take some off and quench the spring before it gets hot. I took a little off then checked it. If it fired all the priners, I took a little more off. When I got a misfire now and then, I put the retaining screw in and tightened it until there was enough tension to fire all the primers reliably. At that point, I noted how much of the screw stuck out of the frame, removed it again, took that much off the end of it and put it back. That way I have still more adjustment left to tighten them some if needed. One pistol wouldn't work with the screw all the way out, so I put it in just far enough to work rather than all the way in where it was from the factory. Note that the ends of the spring are still the original width. I did that so the spring would stay centered at both ends.

[Virginia Mike]

So where did you grind the spring?  In the middle or on one end??  Where am i trying to make it thinner??  Also I am shooting .38 center fires,  i would think it would take less force than a cap.  My C&B Remmi has a lot of tension on it compared to the conversions.

So i am guessing that you filled the middle of the spring to make it weaker?

Thanks for the advice.

Virginia Mike

[Marshal Will Wingam]

You are correct. The sides of the stock spring go straight from one end to the other. The narrow section in the middle is the area I took it off. Draw a line from the outside edge of one end to the outside edge of the other end. The gap inbetween is what was removed. You take it off the sides only, leaving the thickness untouched.

[Marshal Tac]

One thing I might mention regarding thinning these springs... use a file if you have one, rather than a grinder or a dremel. If you have to use a grinder or a dremel, be sure to keep the spring cool so that it doesn't loose it's temper. You don't want to heat it up and make the steel brittle. Also, make sure you polish or smooth the edges you ground down so as to not leave a lot of or large striations in the metal where the grinding was (tool or machine marks), as this will give the spring a starting place to weaken and break.

[Marshal Will Wingam]

Marshal Tac is absolutely right. I use the dremel on mine, dipping them in water after every pass or two to keep cool. I also finish the process with one of the finest Kratex bullet tips (longitudinally) to remove the deep grind/sand marks.