Help me swap my hammer/main spring.

[maxcactus]

I recently bought a Wolff spring kit for my Ruger Bisley. It comes with three springs - a reduced power trigger return spring, reduced power hammer spring and an increased power base-pin latch spring.

No trouble changing springs #1 and 3. The hammer/main spring does pose some challenge as that sucker is captured around the strut and is bound by the seat with a significant amount of force. I have Kuhnhausen's Ruger SA manual in which he has a snappy photo of a jig made specifically to compress the mainspring and remove the seat, etc, etc. I'm not sure I want to spend this kind of $$ to change a single spring however.

For those of you who have changed your hammer/main spring, what process did you use to decompress the spring and remove it from the hammer strut without inflicting grave bodily harm on yourself, a family member or pet? Did you build some sort of homemade fixture? If so, what did you use to compress the spring?

Thanks in advance.
Max.

[tek4260]

Clamp the strut in a vise and grab the seat with pair of pliers. Compress the spring and remove the nail you used to pin it. Ease the seat off while holding the spring with your fingers to keep it from flying as you remove the seat. Reverse to reinstall the new spring.

PS Throw the reduced power mainspring in the garbage and keep the factory spring. No sense in slowing your hammer fall down. I have installed 26# springs in all of mine, including my Single Sixes and BFR.

[brionic]

A fork works, as well. Make sure you have the strut solidly anchored in a vise or a prepared wooden base. If you have any concern about launching a spring or a fork, don safety glasses.

[carl]

Always wear safety glasses when working on Ruger style mainsprings.

Might as well "slick up" the points of friction in that lockwork while the mainspring's out!

Yes, the stock spring is your friend. Those "sissy" springs just don't make sense to this shooter.

Carl

[maxcactus]

Sept 28, 2012 5:47:49 GMT -5 @tek260 said:

PS Throw the reduced power mainspring in the garbage and keep the factory spring. No sense in slowing your hammer fall down. I have installed 26# springs in all of mine, including my Single Sixes and BFR.

I figured as much. Not sure why they include a reduced power mainspring vs. An increased power spring to increase reliability and decrease locktime. The factory spring has never seemed excessively difficult to operate to me.

Thanks for the advice, gentlemen!

[Gary @ R&G]

I use a vise. I open it wide enough that the strut will slide in. Sit the seat over the opening and push down. Then capture with a punch.