Uberti 1866 main spring?

[John William McCandles]

My '66 is getting to where it doesn't set the primers off every time. It's clean but the hammer just doesn't snap forward with much force just kinda drops.
I am sure the previous owner lightened the main spring. So a new spring is most likely in order. I'm leaning towards a stock spring from Cimarron or VTI as I use CCI primers in my 5 in 1 and .44 Colt blanks as they seem to not back out as bad as the others and would like to use one brand of primer.
Does any of the other vendors offer an aftermarket spring that will work with CCI's?

Anything else I should look at or replace while I'm at it? I plan on stripping and refinishing the wood while it is off.
This is an older '66 with the welded ladle.


Regards and Thanks
JW

[Abilene]

A new factory spring should solve the problem, as you figured.  But first, make sure that the screw that attaches the main spring is tight.  This is the front-most screw on the bottom tang.   If that is loose it will cause light hammer strikes.

[Montana Slim]

Agree...first check that the mainspring screw is tight (it's probably not). If this doesn't work, I'd next see if I can increase tension by reducing the spring thickness slightly at the point it contacts the frame (bottomside, at the screw-hole). This could increase pressure. I also might try bending the spring a tad. If these fail, then replacing it is in order.

You can easily tell if the original spring has been re-ground by looking at it. All the factory springs I've seen are ground across the length of the spring (the short direction) and pretty rough. In any event, I recommend removing these coarse marks on new or existing springs by sanding/polishing lengthwise...otherwise, the spring will snap on you one day.

Regards,
SLim

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

Here is a photo of a stock Uberti hammer spring, showing the tooling markds that Uberti leaves across the spring. While it is rare, I did have one of these springs snap in half on me once at a match. It snapped right on one of those tooling marks. Slim is correct, most lightened springs have had those tooling marks polished away.



You might check that the hammer spring screw is OK. I recently had to replace that screw on my '73. Turns out that over time, the screw had gotten stripped enough that it was no longer able to snug the spring down all the way, resulting in failures to fire. When I took the stock off, the problem was obvious, the spring was no longer snugged down. I replaced the screw and everything is fine again.

Here is a photo of the after market spring that Happy Trails sells. You might want to try one of these. I know it will light off Federal and Winchester primers in my Henry. You can ask Hap if he thinks it will be good for CCI too.

http://www.thesmithshop.com/ldmainsp.html

[John William McCandles]

Thanks for the input fella's.
The main spring screw is tight, checked that before I posted.

I will check the hammer screw when I tear it down, may even order one and replace just for gp. Also will give Hap a call about their spring.
If I do use a stock sping I will clean it up a bit as metioned.

Regards
JW

[Stillwater]

Howdy

Here is a photo of a stock Uberti hammer spring, showing the tooling markds that Uberti leaves across the spring. While it is rare, I did have one of these springs snap in half on me once at a match. It snapped right on one of those tooling marks. Slim is correct, most lightened springs have had those tooling marks polished away.



You might check that the hammer spring screw is OK. I recently had to replace that screw on my '73. Turns out that over time, the screw had gotten stripped enough that it was no longer able to snug the spring down all the way, resulting in failures to fire. When I took the stock off, the problem was obvious, the spring was no longer snugged down. I replaced the screw and everything is fine again.

Here is a photo of the after market spring that Happy Trails sells. You might want to try one of these. I know it will light off Federal and Winchester primers in my Henry. You can ask Hap if he thinks it will be good for CCI too.

http://www.thesmithshop.com/ldmainsp.html

DWJ:
Thanks for posting that website... It looks like they are going to get a lot of business from me...

Bill