H&R .25 Self Loader - did I mention that I'm patient

[Johnm1]

3 1/2 years patient in this case. The end of this now closed thread ended with an unusable sear bar.

Amateur Lesson Learned

I'm a tinkerer. I have no gunsmithing or machinist training. I work on hundred year old firearms and it isn't financially feasible to pay a gunsmith to figure it out and make the repair. So I tinker. Machinist tasks and gunsmithing tasks that require special tools still go to the gunsmith. I...

www.thehighroad.org

Well I finally found one and it is installed. Now to make it function if I can.



And here is the geometry



I'm having a bugger of a time installing the factory mainspring (under the hammer) and when I do install the factory mainspring it takes two men and a boy to cock it. I put a replacement mainspring in that wasn't as strong but it won't light off a primer.

 

[conan32120]

Are you sure it the hammer spring causing the issue, could it not be worn firing pin or something preventing the hammer from fully engaging the firing pin?

 

[Johnm1]

I'm sure that the mainspring is "an" issue but probably not the only issue. In the marked up picture above, look at the hammer in the fired position. That would be the blue hammer. Imagine a spring underneath the back side of that hammer pushing it up. That is the mainspring. Part of the problem for the excessive force to cock the gun is the hammer remains slightly above the slide rails. This position is determined entirely by The Sear. Recall I just replace the Sear and there was no guarantee it was going to work correctly. Although, I'm pretty sure the old seer, before I broke it, left the hammer above the rails.

My problem is pushing the hammer down far enough against the force of the mainspring to install the hammer pivot pin. I can and probably will return to the factory spring, I was just hoping this would help with the amount of force needed to cock the gun.

The firing pin is currently coming out . And that is no easy task being it has to be driven out backwards through a hole in the frame made for its installation. Unfortunately after 120 years of being battered by the hammer it just doesn't want to come out that hole it was installed through. Once I get it out and cleaned and a new spring in there it may well fire off. But this firing pin is going to take me a while to get out.

 

[Johnm1]

This is going to take a while. The firing pin is either bent or mushroomed. I doubt it is bent and suspect it is mushroomed from being battered by the hammer. Assuming it is mushroomed I'm going to have to remove the 'mushroomed' part in very little space. Fortunately the mushrooming isn't noticeable so hopefully it is not going to take long. I can rotate the firing pin though it isn't easy.

Like I said, this is going to take a while.