[.455Eley]

Well, it's finally happened. My favorite revolver, my .41 Model 1892, has broken down after 116 years of faithful service to who knows how many owners. After some careful disassembly and inspection I found that it is the hand spring that has broken. (It still cycles when pointing down when gravity holds tension on the hand, but not otherwise.) It looks like it's welded into the hand. Can I buy just the spring or do I have to buy and fit the entire hand?

-- Thanks, Eley.

 

[Oyeboten]

Can you post some good, well lit, close up images of the Hand and it's Spring?

I am a little familiar with the Mechanism used on the subsequent DAs, but I am not familiar with that of the prior DA Swing-out-Cylinder ones on the .41 Frame.

I am sure the Spring can be replaced though, and that it is a matter of understanding how it is attached to the Hand.

I doubt it would have been Welded ( at least originally ).

Peened into a thin slot, maybe, but Welded, would not sound right for how things tended to be done then.

 

[haggis]

Eley,

From some drawings I have, it appears that the spring is a press fit into a slot on the hand. I've attached JPEG's that show this. If you can have a spring made by a gunsmith, it should be an easy fix.

Buck

 

[15109]

The spring was pressed in as far as I can determine. I've found the slot widths vary from hand to hand. I believe Numrich has the hands with the springs, but you may have a lockup problem. I made a new spring from a cheap set of feeler gauges from Harbor Freight. Just select the thickest one that fits the slot. They can be cut with tin snips and for extra measure I epoxied the "new" spring in.

 

[Hondo44]

The spring does fit in a slot and then "staked" or peened in place. But Colt typically sold the hand and spring as an "assembly".