Reassembling troubles with my Police Positive

[David LaPell]

I took my Police Positive apart tonight, not completely, but I took off the mainspring and hand to get to some of the grime in the action. The action worked well, it was timed ok in DA and SA. Now I can get the gun back together, but the action wont time up. It seems like the bolt (cylinder stop is not all the way as forward as it should be in the slot and the cylinder wont turn at all. Take the cylinder out and the action will come up but thats it. I put the mainspring in first before the hand should it have been the opposite. I have a simple manual but it shows all the parts and how it looks with just the sideplate off and it seems that all the parts are where they are supposed to go. Have taken apart a Colt Official Police once and more S & W's than I can remember so not exactly a novice at this. Any ideas?? If it makes a difference it is an early Police Positive.

[A1A]

First, the order of mainspring and hand removal and replacement makes no functional difference. I take the hand out first and install it last. I believe Kuhnhausen does it the opposite, but it doesn't matter. If I read you right you only removed the hand and spring so the safety mechanism should still be connected properly. It is not clear to me from your description just what isn't working, but I presume by "won't time up", you mean "doesn't function". When you replace the hand, you must be sure that the rebound lever arm is sitting on the cam on the inside of the hand and not on the hand axis. You can do that by inserting a screwdriver blade (or a brass wedge ) between the frame and rebound lever , twisting it slightly to raise the lever and pushing in on the hand. With the hand improperly installed in this way, the rebound lever starts low and can not retract the bolt before the hand tries to turn the cylinder. In some guns, the hand is even completely clamped by the sideplate and will not move at all. Another possibility is that the bolt tip is not returned to the top of the rebound lever cam and the rebound lever is not retracting the bolt, but that is usually a matter of fitting and if it was correct initially, one would expect it to still be so.

I presume you are familiar with these basics checks which can give some indication of your particular problem. Colt Revolver Timing Checks

[porsche]

Sounds like A1A has your answer. Lift the rebound lever up slightly and push the hand in the last tiny bit so lever is on the cam (little ledge) of the hand and all should be good. A little oil wont hurt.

[David LaPell]

Ok, I found the problem. It wasn't with the hand because I had that seated correctly, but somehow, and I'm not sure how since it was never taken off of the gun, but the safety lever slid off of its pin on the trigger so it wasn't pushing anything on the cylinder. But after I took it all down and realized where the problem was it all went back together. It was a learning experience for sure for someone used to S & W's.

[A1A]

Well, the safety lever doesn't push anything on the cylinder, but I'm glad you found the problem. As I mentioned, I was assuming that it was still hooked, but you see what that gets you. It was possibly preventing the trigger and hammer from resetting perhaps causing the rebound to not drop enough to let the bolt reset. Anyway, all around it but all's well that ends well. Yes, it is a clever and not always intuitive mechanism.

[RDak]

That happened alot to me when I first starting getting into the innards of the Colt actions.

Now, I know, when that happens it is either the rebound lever isn't in the right place like A1A said or the safety lever isn't aligned properly.