Uberti 1860 Army cylinder timing

[Navy Six]

I just traded into a couple of used 1860 Armies by Uberti. On the older one, if I hold the gun in the normal horizontal position and very slowly cock the hammer, the cylinder doesn't quite rotate far enough for the bolt to completely drop into the notch. The amount short is very small. If you cock the hammer in any kind of normal fashion, the cylinder carries up enough. If I hold the muzzle pointing straight down at the ground, it doesn't matter how slowly or quickly I cock the hammer, the gun locks up perfectly.
I know I am splitting hairs and some may say "if it cocks OK in normal use, leave it alone". However, I like to stay ahead of potential problems before they happen. Hand spring weak? Same for bolt & trigger spring? Thanks for your reply.

[Pettifogger]

I just traded into a couple of used 1860 Armies by Uberti. On the older one, if I hold the gun in the normal horizontal position and very slowly cock the hammer, the cylinder doesn't quite rotate far enough for the bolt to completely drop into the notch. The amount short is very small. If you cock the hammer in any kind of normal fashion, the cylinder carries up enough. If I hold the muzzle pointing straight down at the ground, it doesn't matter how slowly or quickly I cock the hammer, the gun locks up perfectly.
I know I am splitting hairs and some may say "if it cocks OK in normal use, leave it alone". However, I like to stay ahead of potential problems before they happen. Hand spring weak? Same for bolt & trigger spring? Thanks for your reply.

The first part of your question would indicate a short hand.  These are single tooth hands and are SOFT.  They can be stretched to correct timing.  However, the sentence in red points to a different problem.  If gravity is enough to make everything lock up correctly your hand spring is weak or broken.  The smart move is to drill the frame and install a coil spring and plunger and you will have no more problems with hand springs.

[Navy Six]

Thanks, Pettifogger. I did have the gun apart and didn't notice any broken springs. Will try your suggestion on the coil hand spring modification.

[rifle]

Honorable Navy Six, sometimes the spring can be broken and the fracture is invisible to the naked eye. Bend it a little outwards from the hand and it'll snapI bet. seen it multiple times like that.

Pettifogger has good advise most every time dead on bulls-eye correct. That spring thing is a good improvement. Jist make sure and be careful when doing it. Get the hole drilled in the frame in the right place.

A new spring fer the hand is pretty cheap. Take something skinny and tap the old one out and tap a new one in then......Take a scrap piece of steel or an old chisel and file/grind a v shape to the end so you have a tool to sorta peen both sides of the hand at once to secure it in the hand. There should be a lil notch in each side of the hand spring to see where the peen goes. If the spring has no notches make some so metal can be peened down in the notch space of the spring and secure it well to the hand. Secure the spring to the hand so the spring can't move side to side.

If the spring isn't cracked then bend it outwards from the hand some and that will give the "spring" to the hand and the click click click to rotating the cylinder.

[Montana Slim]

Yup, suspect a minor crack/fracture in the spring. Replaced afair number of these myself...and why not, I have a small box brimming with springs via a recent acquisition.  I must take time to make a tool to re-stake the new springs in place....would be a big time saver.

Slim