38 Lemon Squeezer ?

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j19d5000

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I have a 38 Lemon Squeezer it is in good shape. The person who had it before me said they dry fired it. Then from there on it would not work. I got the gun from the person and got it home. I took it apart and the main flat spring is broke in half real close to the bottom. So I ordered a new spring. I have the spring on hand what is the best way to go about putting this spring in the gun. I have not found any info on this at all. Would appreciate any info.

Thanks
 
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Welcome to the Forum. Replacing a broken mainspring is an easy job. Take off the grips and the side plate so you have full view of what you are doing. Back off the main spring tension screw in the bottom front of the grip frame. Get a medium size pair of good needle nose pliers. Grasp the new spring with the pliers. Insert the top "hook" of the spring around the stirrup that is attached to the back of the hammer. Then apply pressure to the spring, with the pliers, bending it just enough to slide the bottom of the spring into the slot in the bottom of the grip frame. Tighten the main spring tension screw so that it bears against the new mainspring. Carefully dry fire the gun to see if all parts are working OK. Replace side plate & grips. There are numerous publication that show the parts diagrams for .38 Safety Hammerless revolvers. Consult one of these, if you are unsure of how things fit together on your gun. Goos Luck. Ed.
 
ok i did this the spring is really hard to get in. I ordered the spring from numrich gun parts. The spring is really stiff. I did manage to get it in one time. The gun would not cycle after it was installed. I have found the parts diagrams I have that but it does not show how it goes in. thank you for the reply any more help on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Also it took way more than just needle nose to get that spring into place. They may have sent me the wrong spring but it looks identical to what came out of it.
 
You may have other parts out od 'sync' due to the repeated tried after the spring was broken. Or pieces of something.

I would get a diagram for that period and remove, clean, oil, and replace all the parts. You might be amazed at what you find floating in there.
 
Yes, any gun this old will need a thorough cleaning of the action and all moving parts, as it has 100+ yrs. of old grease, pieces of broken parts, crud and little varmints residing therein. If the new spring is too strong, you can lighten it a little by carefully grinding down the sides to a smaller width. Good Luck, ED.
 
This is exactly what it does. Once the spring is in. I pull the trigger the hammer works it would fire once. Then it does not go back into place. To prepare for another round. I have done this with the grips off to watch and see what is going on. I will tear it down and clean it well and see what happens.
 
Double check for a missing coil spring as well.
Like the trigger rebound spring, or a hammer block out of position. (Does that gun have a lose hammer block?).

Exactly what model is it? Including the dash number?
I have owned a model 40 and 42, but to tell thr truth, I never opened up either one?
 
j19d5000 said:
This is exactly what it does. Once the spring is in. I pull the trigger the hammer works it would fire once. Then it does not go back into place. To prepare for another round. I have done this with the grips off to watch and see what is going on. I will tear it down and clean it well and see what happens.
Click to expand...

Remember gun will not fire without squeezing grip safety! If the trigger does not return to front position after firing, you can push it forward to verify, then it has a broken trigger spring as well. It is a V spring that rest ahead of trigger, just under trigger guard. You have to spring the trigger guard together off its hooks and then the V spring more or less drops in. Easy job if you know how to get guard off. It's just one big steel spring that snaps in place.
 
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