Bought a 4006 as soon as they were released back in the day and loved that pistol even today. Lately I have wanted to add to the 3rd Gen collection so I found a 4506 that will be here this weekend that is super nice. I also wanted a 5906 and I found one of those at a pawn shop. It was worn and looked unloved but not shot much, so I bought it. Stripped it down completely. I found most of the steel springs were rusty as were the hammer and the trigger. I bead blasted almost ever part and bought springs were needed. I parkerized the front and rear Novak’s, the trigger and the trigger. Since the pic I have repainted the red for the safety and the white dots in the sites. The barrel was pretty darn good with pretty crisp rifling.
I polished the feed ramp and did a slight polish on the mating surfaces.

Took her to the range and she performed well. Very happy with the resto. The only issue I seem to have is when I drop the decock the hammer doesn’t always fall, sometimes I have to wiggle it and then it falls.

Anyway. Very nice gun now for what I paid for it!

Attached Images

FA33DDF2-399C-4170-BCB8-F6ECFA8CA9E5.jpg (89.4 KB, 229 views)

Nice work!

Fit a new sear release lever and you will fix the decock problem.

John

Thanks. That should be easy enough!

First, welcome to the S&W Forums!
Second, you made quite the entrance to our humble forum.
Third, nice job on restoring that 5906.
Fourth, fitting a sear release lever requires time and patience.
Fifth, let us know how that turns out.

__________________
VCDL, GOA, NRA

Not a problem to replace. Had practice while putting it all back together! Part on order.


THANKS!!

New Lever installed and wow it drops like right now!!


Calling this project done. Now to shoot her !!

Attached Images

CB826BC8-FBDA-4617-8679-2A7AF0DEBF51.jpg (65.7 KB, 60 views)

Please be sure the release lever is timed properly. The new, replacement sear release lever is not a drop in part. It must be adjusted (fit) so that it releases the sear (hammer) at the proper time, as the safety lever is coming down.

If the lever releases the sear/hammer too early, this is an unsafe condition.

__________________
Ret. LE, FA Instr, S&W Armorer

I could not agree more, armorer!

Thankfully, on 2nd and 3rd gen pistols, the firing pin safety is a back up to the manual safety body if decock timing is too early.

Still not a substitute for proper fitting.

Much more critical on the 1st gen models without the firing pin safety.

John

This makes sense and I see what you mean. What is the proper procedure for this? Where does the “fitting” take place?

Which face of this lever is “fitted” or “timed”

So your decock doesn't work anymore...Now what?

Awesome. I will read this a couple of times and then read it again. Then I will try it. It is a little early so I will try this.


Thanks


More to
Come

I am comparing the two parts—the new one and the old one.

The old one has material removed from that face for sure and I can see why it is faulty. The new one needs very little removed from its face.


The difference between not working every time and too early is minimal

You know, when I was first bumbling around with mixing and matching Gen 2 & 3 parts a couple of months ago, I must not have made myself clear when I expressed concern about matching the safety/decocker in the slide to the inner workings of the lower (receiver.) I was told that there was no worry of an AD if the mechanism was out of time... it just didn't happen.

I was too cautious to take this at face value and spent a little extra time test not firing assembled "Franken-Smith." My own problem was a worn lear lever that would not engage with the safety and allow it to decock without undue effort. In this case, I had a "parts kit" from a Model 915 and at the suggestion of someone much more experienced than myself tried just swapping out the same part. I got lucky I guess because my problem immediately disappeared! Life is good, and sometimes even a blind squirrel finds an acorn.

froggie

I ordered two levers just in case...and both were way long I am sure this part was meant to be fitted. No way it could drop in and work. The new working one has about ~.003 more material on the seat face than the one that doesn’t work properly and

Lever is installed and drops as it should.

Great learning experience!


Project is now a great shooter!


Thanks!