I think I messed up

[Crazy K38]

I broke down my model 15 to clean the small parts and when I re-assembled it the hand has no tension on it and moves back and forth freely meaning as long as the gun is pointing down it will rotate the cylander, any other position and it will cause the whole action to stick because it gets caught on the edge of the slot it goes in, what is going on? this revolver worked well before I disassembled it like an idiot, can anyone help me?

 

[BlackAgnes]

You needed to put tension on the hand by pre-loading its smaller pin beneath the coil spring inside the trigger. If you can find a punch which just slips into the recess behind the trigger--use it to push the end of the spring forward under tension while pushing the hand into position in the trigger body. When you have the hand pushed all the way in, you should feel the tension because the tail of the spring is now pushing on the smaller hand pin.

Kinda hard to describe, but if you look at the rear of the trigger, you'll see the wire tail of the spring we're talking about--it gets pushed forward and up with the punch and held there while you insert the hand.

Test the hand for tension and re-install.

 

[S&W revolverman]

Do what BlackAgnes states. However, I always put the trigger in a vise to hold it. You will have to push fairly hard on the one leg of the hand spring in the trigger to get it up far enough so the pin of the hand will fit under the spring. Not easy to do if the trigger is not held in a vise, unless you have three hands.

Hope this helps
chris

 

[BlackAgnes]

Good ad "vise", Chris!

Also, I "start" the hand in the trigger holes first, then as I push the spring forward, I just mash the hand in with my thumb, and Bob's yer uncle.

 

[MKT]

No vise and only two hands needed

I too use the appropriately sized punch method, but I don't need a vise. I slip the punch into the slot and index the punch on the spring. Then I simply hold onto the trigger assembly and press the trigger and punch into my thigh with my left hand. This action compresses the spring and leaves my right hand free to slip the hand into the trigger. Slowly lifting the trigger from your leg allows the spring to engage the hand pin and you'll know right away if you captured it.

 

[Crazy K38]

I can't believe I didn't see that spring before! I was looking all over for something I might have dropped looking at EVERYTHING and it was in there all along, well all I had to do was put it into my right had slip a punch into the groove apply pressure then hold on to it with index and thumb of right hand start the hand pins and pull out the punch, it took all of 10 seconds, man I feel like an idiot, but I know my model 15 WAY better now thank you so much for the help you guys, I really don't know if I could have done it without you

 

[curlyws6]

Thanks for this thread! I recently purchased a model 66 and was took it apart to clean it and removed the hand.... not knowing about the spring . I have looked at this pistol for a few days trying to figure out why the hand wasn't 'returning' to a start position which would turn the cylinder. At least I learned something new today .

 

[n4zov]

This video from Midway shows a quick view of what is being described.

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