AWA Ultimate 1873 trouble

[44caliberkid]

Shot this pistola at a match last month with smokeless factory "cowboy" loads and had no trouble.  Went at it yesterday with my warthog 44-40 BP loads, first shot worked, after that cylinder wouldn't rotate, had to shoot all day advancing the next 4 shots by hand.  Unloading and loading, or empty it worked fine, would fire the first boomer fine, then nothin'.
   Now the "ULTIMATE 1873"  model has a coil mainspring conversion, very light hammer pull, and a coil handspring (al a Ruger) conversion on the hand.  If I give the cylinder a little resistance, the hand slips past the ratchet.  So I'm wondering, do I need a stiffer coil spring on the hand, or switch it to a stocker?  Or could the big boom be causing the hammer to bounce back, slightly advancing the cylinder out of time?

[Camille Eonich]

When you advanced by hand did it feel stiff or like it was sticking or did it spin as it usually does?

[44caliberkid]

It was not hard tp turn by hand.

[Guage Rod]

44 Cal, You say you have a coil spring (Piano wire) on the trigger/lever arm of this gun.  I had one like that on a P-junior.  Timing went to heck.  I pulled out the triger guard, removed the spring and it literaly broke in my hand.  I replaced it with a leaf spring that I ordered from VTI and with a little bending and tweeking, improved on the original triger pull (now less than 2 lbs, and the timming lock up.  Check it out and best of luck    

[44caliberkid]

No, I said it has a coil handspring, the trigger/bolt spring is flat steel, stock type, but it might be aftermarket, like Wolff, etc.  I'm pretty sure this problem is related to the race gun springs in some way.  I'll just keep swapping stuff out till I find the trouble.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

Well, your hand should certainly not be slipping past the ratchet teeth. I persoanally don't see the point of an extra light hand spring. Extra light hand springs can lead to other problems, like over-rotation. I would first of all look at the hand and the ratchet teeth and see if there is wear or any rounding off that is allowing the hand to slip off the teeth when you offer a little bit of resistance. Next, if the parts are not worn, I would use a slightly stiffer spring. I don't trust a SA revolver that does not 'sing' nice and loud when I spin the cylinder. Show me a revolver with a hand spring that light and I'll show you how to get it to over rotate every single time. I don't think a cylinder should need to spin for a half an hour after it starts spinning in order to win prizes.

Regarding your lock up problem, I suspect it has more to do with the engagement of the cross bolt latch and your cylinder base pin. See my remarks at the Darkside section of this forum.