ROA pawl spring & plunger

[AbitNutz]

So I managed to smoosh the pawl spring between the grip frame and receiver on my Old Army. It still works but is a bit worse for wear. Fortunately this is a really common spring and easy to come by.

Has anyone made a modification to make this less likely to happen...besides getting someone with better eyes to do it?

I was thinking about cutting the smooshed spring down enough to put a 2nd plunger on it....one at both ends. If it would fit, there would be no way to cock the spring when putting the grip-frame on.

Just a thought...

 

[Malachi Leviticus Blue]

That wouldn't leave much spring left, but you may as well see how it goes since you have a buggered up spring anyway.

I've found the plunger & spring assembly installed backwards at least twice when tearing down a new to me ROA acquisition. Surprisingly, they seemed to work fine that way for the time being, but I turned them around anyway.

 

[AbitNutz]

That's exactly how I found this one! It was turned spring end first and the plunger was just barely sticking out of the hole....but you're right, it still worked. It was a real pain to remove. I had to gut all the internal parts and push it through the hole with the flat of a screwdriver. I had to consult the exploded diagram to make sure I wasn't imagining things.

Cutting off the smooshed spring and then maybe shortening the end of the 2nd plunger might give it enough room.

Part of me want to tap that hole for a set screw.

 

[robert garner]

Mash a small bit of lead,set it over the spring,pressure fit it in the hole,fergit it.
robert

 

[flahipneck]

Numrich has them at this time. https://www.gunpartscorp.com/Products/242000A.htm and plunger https://www.gunpartscorp.com/Products/242170A.htm https://www.gunpartscorp.com/Products/243260C.htm

 

[AbitNutz]

Thanks for the link. I ordered a spring and plunger...

I think I'm going to see if I can modify this a bit. I'll shorten the smooshed spring and put a plunger on each end. I might have to shorten up the plunger some. If that looks like it's going to work, I'll drill a very shallow hole in the grip-frame, over the plunger hole to center it when I push the grip-frame on to the receiver.

Failing all of that, I'll just have my grandson put it back together for me...

 

[AbitNutz]

I finally got my pawl spring and plunger. I took the old smooshed spring and eyeballed the length minus the length of a 2nd plunger. Perfect thing to cut those little coils with is a nail clipper.

I tightened up the very end of the spring to hold the plunger stem. Now I had a two headed pawl plunger spring. I slipped in the hole; most of the new plunger stuck out as planned but none of the spring.

I tried several times to see if I could cock the plunger and bind or smoosh the spring...no go. A blind man could put the grip frame on this thing now without having to see it. which is a good thing for me...

 

[BullSlinger]

Congratulations. Always makes me feel good when the fix really works.

 

[toolslinger]

Dang that sounds like a slick fix. I'm gonna try that.

 

[Noz]

The reason for the inverted installation is that many of the assembly instructions(exploded views that came with the Black Hawks/Old Armys showed the spring and plunger as installed backwards.

 

[AbitNutz]

It can't be! Guys don't read directions!