1866 carbine wobbly lever?

[nativeshootist]

Does anyones lever on their uberti lever actions wobble?

[Abilene]

yes

[Coffinmaker]

PLUS ONE to Abilene!!  ALL of them.  The lever on my 1866s wobble (or did), the lever(s) on my 1873s wobble (or did) and the levers on all the Uberti Henry rifles I have/had wobble.  It's annoying.  I've fix'd my rifles.  Went to my local cheap Auto Parts store and picked up a couple of automotive feeler gauges that included Brass blades.  Found the one that snugged up the levers, Drilled pivot holes and cut to size.  PRESTO!!  Instant shims.  If you get em too snug, the lever will bind.

PS:  When you make your shims, make them to fit BETWEEN the Carrier Block Arm and the Lever.

[nativeshootist]

Thanks guys!

[Professor Marvel]

Thank you My Good Coffin, for your eloquent dissertation desertiion discussion on the issues and simple fixes regarding the wobbly lever design!

Have you by any chance had the opportunity to handle an original, so that we might discern whether the wobble is a deliberate design wobble, or if it was a wibble wobble introduced by the Italians (whether by design, accident, or via wibbley-wobbley production flaws) ?
Does said wobble also occur in the 1873 or the Henry? or is it a particularly peculiar wobble inherent to only the 1866?

yhs
prof marvel

[Major 2]

My 1891  73 has wobble , so do my 2 Uberti Henry's and my HRA H011 Henry, never though much about it 

[Coffinmaker]

My good Perfesser   

The Wobbly-Wibbley seems to be an inherent design .... feature .... included in the original design of the Toggle Link action.  For some unknown reason Wibbley-Wobble was original.  The Italians were pretty much deliberate in including most of the original design features that also include the wobble-wobble, or Wibble-Wobble depending.  Some guns Wobble more than they Wibble, ne; the 1873.  It has been my experience though, the Brass Frame rifles exhibit a like ammount of Wibbley-Wobbley without regard to Henry pattern nor 1866 pattern. 

I have endeavored to shim ALL of my Brass Rifles to eliminate as much Wobbley-Wibble as possible and still engender smooth and positive function.  I cannot, however, state unequivocally, elimination of the maximum Wibbley-Wobbley results in enhanced performance.  The action does however, feel much better.  Being somewhat touchy-feeley as it twer, but that, however is a different thread??

[Professor Marvel]

Thank you my dear Coffin!

without putting you out too much, dost thou perchance recalleth off the top of thy noggin approximate thicknesses of the shims?
(it's sunday in the great southwest, so I thoguht I would impersonate Cotton Mather..)

I am getting ready to order out a bunch of brass stock and it occurred to me the hobby supply joint might have a nice useful standard
thickness.... and my yellowboy is locked up, walled off, bricked in, unnapproachable, behind stacks of sheiss.....

yhs
prof (lazy) marvel

[Coffinmaker]

Ah Yes my good Perfesser!!  The Shim thickness is right at the forefront of my feeble memory.  Ah, what is it I was trying to remember ..... Oh yes, I do remember.  Here it is:

No two were alike.  Shims ran from 004 thru 009.  Learned real quick, don't have two rifles apart side by each on the same bench on the same day.  Luckily for me (or "others") as it twer, the inexpensive (cheap) feeler sets I found had a plethora of varying brass blades.  When I found oe that worked, I cut it up and slid it in.  In the gun(s) they aren't even marked.

I think it is well worth the time to do.  The feel of the action is much improved.