Poper
Member
I have a Taurus model 94 in .22RF that I bought on a whim some 8 or so years ago. It has always had a terrible trigger and would lock up after 50 or so rounds, so I relegated it to the back of the safe.
A couple weeks ago I got the urge to fiddle with it to see if I could alleviate the worst of its troubles. In the course of my research I discovered I am not alone with my 94 woes. Some folks had/have much worse issues with their 94 than I do with mine.
First off, let it be known that I have had a longstanding agreement with my gunsmith of choice (he has built two custom rifles and worked over a Colt 1911 for me) that I would not play gunsmith if he would not play architect. So far, so good. Except he retired a year ago and left me without a 'smith I knew and trusted. With this in mind, I decided the Taurus would be a good learning tool.
I went on-line and researched the inner workings of the M94 and what people did to them to alleviate their ailments. One thing that jumped out at me was end play in the cylinder. If there is more that a couple thousandths endplay, lighter hammer/main spring tension could cause misfires. My particular gun had no discernible endplay. (Whew!) Then, with the manual's illustrated parts breakdown in hand, I got out my Forester screw drivers, leather headed hammer, tweezers, etc. I also had a print out of a post from another forum that had excellent photographs of the process of detailed disassembly of the guts of the thing.
The post noted stated to strike the inside face of the side plate with a punch and hammer through a hole in the frame from the left side once the grips were off. Now I knew from past conversations with my gunsmith that this was a no-no. That and trying to pry one off were verbotten. I used the hammer end of my kinetic bullet puller to rap on the grip frame towards the end. Two sharp smacks and it popped off cleanly. I paid close attention to the parts and how they related to each other. One thing jumped out at me right off: The main spring center pin was installed reversed from the photos of the one I found on-line. The shape of the mainspring center pin in my revolver was different than the one illustrated in my manual. Mine has a disk shaped end that the hammer rotates on as it compresses the spring. In the photos of the other fellows gun, the arch of this pin roughly followed the arch of the grip back strap. Mine was installed oppositely and as such the geometry didn't look right. As though it reduced the leverage of the hammer to compress the spring.
I removed the cylinder and crane assembly and set it aside.
I then cocked the hammer, placed a couple of pieces of metal wire into the holes at the end end of the main spring center pin and the end of the trigger spring center pin at its pivot. I then released the hammer with my thumb accepting the spring pressure. The main spring assembly fell out and the trigger return spring assembly followed. I lifted the hammer assembly off its pivot pin. I removed the main spring from its pin and using a very fine dremel tool cut-off wheel, I trimmed a 1-1/2 coils from the spring and then replaced it on the mainspring pin.
Something I noticed right off was that there seemed to be some grit in the workings, so I hosed everything down with brake parts cleaner until the paper towel showed no foreign particles or crud. Next, I decided to remove the firing pin because I intended to cycle the action at least 1,000 times after surgery before taking it to the range. Easier said than done. Removing the firing pin retaining pin was simple enough with an over sized tweezers. Getting the firing pin out itself was another thing. I ended up using the the smallest allen headed insert from my Chapman driver set and all the force I could muster with my arthritic thumb to press it out from the cylinder side.
Looking everything over for rub marks, I discovered three places on the side plate that showed evidence of parts rubbing. These places were also fairly rough from machining. The frame showed a couple places, too. All of these areas I went after with my Dremel tool and a felt polishing wheel with some jeweler's rouge until they were no longer rough. They weren't perfectly mirror bright, but they weren't rough, either. I'll note here that there was a tiny rolled pin projecting from the right side of the hammer that was dragging on the inside surface of the side plate so I touched it off very lightly with the Dremel 800 grit disc just flush with the surface of the hammer.
The disk shaped head of the mainspring pin was a little rough to the touch so I cleaned it up with 1,000 grit emery cloth and a little elbow grease. Same with the trigger return spring assembly's ball joint. I did not touch any of the sear surfaces or any engagement surfaces, though I think polishing them with the felt wheel and jeweler's rouge would have helped some, too.
I then reassembled the revolver sans firing pin and firing pin spring. Over the next week or ten days I would cycle the action while watching TV for at least 1,200 cycles, using the opportunity to dry fire much of the last 400 or so cycles while concentrating on a proper trigger squeeze, both single action and double action. (My arthritic hands have still not forgiven me.)
Final stages of this exercise was to disassemble (again) and clean with brake parts cleaner (again) and reinstall the firing pin and firing pin spring. After cussing the firing pin for an hour and a half for not cooperating, I decided that the reason it was so stubborn to remove might have been due to a burr on the hammer side of the its port. After nipping the end of the extra fine conical dremel grinding tool with a dikes (so as not to affect the small firing pin hole inside), I chucked it into my drill for low speed use and gave it about thirty or so revolutions. I cleaned it with some brake parts cleaner and a Q-Tip and it went in like it should on the first test fit!. I then polished the sliding surfaces of the firing pin - the big domed end and the firing pin shaft, too. I cleaned the innards again with brake parts cleaner and let it dry thoroughly.
Before reassembly, I used a Q-Tip to apply a little gun grease to the hammer pivot pin, mainspring pin pivot end, the trigger return spring pin at the ball end and dabbed a skosh of Kroil on a Q-Tip into the firing pin hole. Once everything was reassembled, I lubricated the interior workings with a Microlon spray lube that leaves a proprietary dry lubrication behind after the vehicle evaporates - which takes about three or four hours - and then on went the grips.
I took it to the range today and I am happy to say, the results were simply amazing! It went from a double action trigger pull that was almost impossible for my hands, to one of about 9 lbs or so and a single action trigger pull of 4 or 5 lbs to about 2 lbs.
I actually enjoyed sighting it in today, too!
ETA:
Using Eley Target and Aguila Standard Velocity ammo, I had zero failures to fire!
A couple weeks ago I got the urge to fiddle with it to see if I could alleviate the worst of its troubles. In the course of my research I discovered I am not alone with my 94 woes. Some folks had/have much worse issues with their 94 than I do with mine.
First off, let it be known that I have had a longstanding agreement with my gunsmith of choice (he has built two custom rifles and worked over a Colt 1911 for me) that I would not play gunsmith if he would not play architect. So far, so good. Except he retired a year ago and left me without a 'smith I knew and trusted. With this in mind, I decided the Taurus would be a good learning tool.
I went on-line and researched the inner workings of the M94 and what people did to them to alleviate their ailments. One thing that jumped out at me was end play in the cylinder. If there is more that a couple thousandths endplay, lighter hammer/main spring tension could cause misfires. My particular gun had no discernible endplay. (Whew!) Then, with the manual's illustrated parts breakdown in hand, I got out my Forester screw drivers, leather headed hammer, tweezers, etc. I also had a print out of a post from another forum that had excellent photographs of the process of detailed disassembly of the guts of the thing.
The post noted stated to strike the inside face of the side plate with a punch and hammer through a hole in the frame from the left side once the grips were off. Now I knew from past conversations with my gunsmith that this was a no-no. That and trying to pry one off were verbotten. I used the hammer end of my kinetic bullet puller to rap on the grip frame towards the end. Two sharp smacks and it popped off cleanly. I paid close attention to the parts and how they related to each other. One thing jumped out at me right off: The main spring center pin was installed reversed from the photos of the one I found on-line. The shape of the mainspring center pin in my revolver was different than the one illustrated in my manual. Mine has a disk shaped end that the hammer rotates on as it compresses the spring. In the photos of the other fellows gun, the arch of this pin roughly followed the arch of the grip back strap. Mine was installed oppositely and as such the geometry didn't look right. As though it reduced the leverage of the hammer to compress the spring.
I removed the cylinder and crane assembly and set it aside.
I then cocked the hammer, placed a couple of pieces of metal wire into the holes at the end end of the main spring center pin and the end of the trigger spring center pin at its pivot. I then released the hammer with my thumb accepting the spring pressure. The main spring assembly fell out and the trigger return spring assembly followed. I lifted the hammer assembly off its pivot pin. I removed the main spring from its pin and using a very fine dremel tool cut-off wheel, I trimmed a 1-1/2 coils from the spring and then replaced it on the mainspring pin.
Something I noticed right off was that there seemed to be some grit in the workings, so I hosed everything down with brake parts cleaner until the paper towel showed no foreign particles or crud. Next, I decided to remove the firing pin because I intended to cycle the action at least 1,000 times after surgery before taking it to the range. Easier said than done. Removing the firing pin retaining pin was simple enough with an over sized tweezers. Getting the firing pin out itself was another thing. I ended up using the the smallest allen headed insert from my Chapman driver set and all the force I could muster with my arthritic thumb to press it out from the cylinder side.
Looking everything over for rub marks, I discovered three places on the side plate that showed evidence of parts rubbing. These places were also fairly rough from machining. The frame showed a couple places, too. All of these areas I went after with my Dremel tool and a felt polishing wheel with some jeweler's rouge until they were no longer rough. They weren't perfectly mirror bright, but they weren't rough, either. I'll note here that there was a tiny rolled pin projecting from the right side of the hammer that was dragging on the inside surface of the side plate so I touched it off very lightly with the Dremel 800 grit disc just flush with the surface of the hammer.
The disk shaped head of the mainspring pin was a little rough to the touch so I cleaned it up with 1,000 grit emery cloth and a little elbow grease. Same with the trigger return spring assembly's ball joint. I did not touch any of the sear surfaces or any engagement surfaces, though I think polishing them with the felt wheel and jeweler's rouge would have helped some, too.
I then reassembled the revolver sans firing pin and firing pin spring. Over the next week or ten days I would cycle the action while watching TV for at least 1,200 cycles, using the opportunity to dry fire much of the last 400 or so cycles while concentrating on a proper trigger squeeze, both single action and double action. (My arthritic hands have still not forgiven me.)
Final stages of this exercise was to disassemble (again) and clean with brake parts cleaner (again) and reinstall the firing pin and firing pin spring. After cussing the firing pin for an hour and a half for not cooperating, I decided that the reason it was so stubborn to remove might have been due to a burr on the hammer side of the its port. After nipping the end of the extra fine conical dremel grinding tool with a dikes (so as not to affect the small firing pin hole inside), I chucked it into my drill for low speed use and gave it about thirty or so revolutions. I cleaned it with some brake parts cleaner and a Q-Tip and it went in like it should on the first test fit!. I then polished the sliding surfaces of the firing pin - the big domed end and the firing pin shaft, too. I cleaned the innards again with brake parts cleaner and let it dry thoroughly.
Before reassembly, I used a Q-Tip to apply a little gun grease to the hammer pivot pin, mainspring pin pivot end, the trigger return spring pin at the ball end and dabbed a skosh of Kroil on a Q-Tip into the firing pin hole. Once everything was reassembled, I lubricated the interior workings with a Microlon spray lube that leaves a proprietary dry lubrication behind after the vehicle evaporates - which takes about three or four hours - and then on went the grips.
I took it to the range today and I am happy to say, the results were simply amazing! It went from a double action trigger pull that was almost impossible for my hands, to one of about 9 lbs or so and a single action trigger pull of 4 or 5 lbs to about 2 lbs.
I actually enjoyed sighting it in today, too!
ETA:
Using Eley Target and Aguila Standard Velocity ammo, I had zero failures to fire!
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