I decided to put a bobbed hammer on my 396. Thought I would keep the original, well original. Ordered a new hammer. Bobbed it, needed dbl action sear trimmed a tiny bit, fine. But, so far I have lost or messed up 4 springs trying to get them back in right. Whos bright idea was this set up? The old system was great. Trying to get that spring in sucks. Suggestions. Ya ya a plastic sack. Thing is hard enough to work without doing it in a sack. Anybody got these figured out????

This is a tight space for sure. ( I usually place a dab of grease in the hole of the sear prior to inserting the spring)

After securing the hammer in a padded vise, I mount the spring on a piece of thin, flat metal stock.....in this case, the "flat" side of a bobby pin. See photo

With this contraption in hand, place the end of the spring in the hole in the sear body. Carefully start the sear into the cutaway, then compress the spring with the attached bobby pin and push the whole mess into place. The bobby pin can then be withdrawn from the base of the spring.

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Ret. LE, FA Instr, S&W Armorer

Thanks. I figured someone here had figured it out. Almost as fun as the little spring and plunge in a rear sight elevation nut. Now all I need is a couple more springs.

Another idea I read recently was to use a credit card or driver's license. Compress, enter, remove. Sounded good... I didn't try it though.

Sheer genius. Simple and smart at the same time.

If I had a nickel for every tiny spring and plunger I've lost, I'd have... well, a couple of bucks.

The ex used to come into the room when I had one apart and was cussing and say, "Careful with that, you'll put yer eye out."

I always appreciated her helpful input.

I use an Exacto knife to hold hte spring down while sliding the sear into place. I've also found that to compress that same spring to remove the sear it is easiest to do by using two Exacto Knives to "walk" the spring down into the hole one coil at a time. Takes a bit of time to do this but I have yet to damage a sear spring by trying to force the sear out of it's engagement in the hammer.

You would think that little springs would show up in the dust pan after you lose one and sweep the floor, but they never do. Sometimes I get luck by trolling with a strong magnet.

I always wondered why Gremlins like sear springs as well as Hand Torsion springs. And..left foot socks!