Collective wisdom from the cas-l fire.
Written and rounded up by Kid Hawkins & Bull Schmitt
To
disassemble the Rossi '92
To reassemble the
Rossi '92
A few tips on how to
fix problems
Bull Schmidt's
instructions for an action job
To disassemble
the Rossi '92
Remove the screw in the rear of the tang and pull off the stock (it may
take a bit of a tug). Open the lever, and on the left-hand bolt that
comes out of the receiver you will see a set screw holding a pin in
place. Remove the set screw and the pin. The two locking bolts should
now slide out. Now remove the top-most, forward-most screw on the left
hand side of the receiver. Turn the rifle over and use a punch in the
corresponding hole on the right side to drive out the pin holding the
lever to the bolt. Remove the lever. Now comes a very important part not
mentioned in Rossi's instructions.
Start to pull back the hammer, and look at the strut connected to the
hammer that goes through the mainspring. You will notice a little hole
in it. Now look at the block on the lower tang through which this arm
passes, and you will see a little indentation. As you pull back the
hammer, line up the hole with the indentation and stick a paper clip
through the hole. This keeps the mainspring under pressure and makes
re-assembly MUCH easier. Remove the big screw at the rear of the
receiver on the left side that holds the hammer and lower tang (the part
with the trigger) in place. Now pull the lower tang from the receiver.
If it's tight, get a small
> block of wood and GENTLY tap it out. The hammer, strut and
mainspring should now come out, and the bolt will slide out the back of
the receiver. Be careful as you remove the bolt, because the ejector,
ejector spring, and the collar that holds them in place will tend to
fall out the front of the bolt. If you feel the need, you can now take
out all the rest of the screws in the receiver and remove the magazine
cover, cartridge guides, and cartridge carrier.
Don't mix up which screw is which.
To reassemble the Rossi '92:
First, reassemble the ejector assembly by sliding the spring over
the leg of the ejector, followed by the collar. If the collar didn't
come out with the ejector, get a small screwdriver or needle nosed
pliers and either pop it out the front or side of the bolt, or move it
within the bolt so it is properly positioned for the leg of the ejector
to slide through it when the ejector is reinserted. Now point the bolt
face down and slide the ejector assembly up into it, making sure the
ejector is properly oriented to go in the bolt. Doing it this way
prevents the spring and collar from sliding off. Keep a finger on the
front of the ejector to hold it in place and do a little inspecting. The
ejector face should slide in almost flush with the bolt face. The collar
should butt up between the dogleg sticking up from the bottom of the
bolt and the ejector spring. The ejector leg should not bind at any
point inside the bolt, and the little projection on the end of the
ejector leg should be behind the hole in the bolt. Now point the rifle
muzzle up and slide in the bolt to its normal closed position. You might
want to put a small piece of tape around the rear of the bolt to hold it
in position. Slide the hammer, strut, and mainspring in place inside the
receiver, and while holding them roughly in the correct position, tap
the lower tang assembly into the receiver.
Remember to hold back the trigger and guide the hammer strut through its
hole in the block on the lower tang while you tap. Now replace the big
screw that holds the hammer and tang in place. All the holes must line
up exactly right, and gently tapping on the screw with a plastic hammer
can help to line things up. Remove whatever you were using to hold the
mainspring in place. Check to be sure the hammer cocks and the trigger
releases it, but don't snap the hammer--let it down gently. Lay the
rifle upside down and put the locking lugs back in place in the
receiver. There is a groove cut on each lug. This groove goes to the
rear and toward the inside of the receiver for each lug. The lug with
two holes goes on the side of the receiver without the loading gate.
You'll have to put the lugs most of the way into the receiver through
the opening for the lever then sort of rotate them into place in their
channels. Now cock the hammer, remove the tape, and pull the locking
lugs up until you can move the bolt. Gently slide the bolt back until
you feel some resistance against the hammer, just before the hammer
slides into a semi-circular cutout on the bottom of the bolt. If you
look in the bottom of the rifle where the lever normally is, you should
see the collar on the ejector and the dogleg on the bolt holding it in
place. Hold the lever almost vertical but slightly pointed to the rear
and slide it up through the bottom of the receiver and into place. If
you get it right, you should now be able to close the lever and the bolt
will go most of the way home. If it stops about 1/2" short, pull
back the lever and bolt, rotate the ejector to the correct position, and
shove it back into the bolt, then close the bolt again. If you do all
this slowly and carefully, the ejector should not have moved enough that
the spring and collar have gotten out of place inside the bolt. Now pull
the trigger and let the hammer down to hold the bolt firmly in place,
and replace the pin through the upper receiver. This pin connects the
bolt to the lever. Before you replace the screw covering the hole, again
pull the locking lugs out far enough to allow the bolt to move and try
to work the lever. If it won't move at all, you probably didn't tap in
the pin far enough. Whack it a little more (gently!) until you can work
the lever part way. Cock the hammer and leave the lever part way open,
and move the locking lugs around until all the holes line up and you can
replace the pin holding them to the lever. Rotate the pin so you can put
in the set screw. Replace the stock and screw everything down tight.
Make sure it all works, and you're done!
A few tips on how to fix problems:
My Rossi has been a delight. Only problem is
sometimes the last round doesn't eject cleanly. I'd appreciate any info
on that one.
Been there, dealt with that. The problem (at least with mine) is that it
never really ejects correctly, but until you get to the last round, you
have a live round coming up on the carrier to assist with the ejection.
Two thing to check: 1) See the little part that just fell out the front
of the bolt? That's the ejector. A spring fits around it inside the
bolt, and the collar fits behind the spring to keep it in place. Look at
the front of the ejector--there are two little "feet" on the
front of it that keep the empty case in place as it is extracted from
the chamber. If these are rounded off, the empty can slip out from under
the extractor before it it ejected. Use a dremel or a small file and
make sure those feet are flat and square with the bolt face. 2) The
ejector slides inside a channel in the bolt. It must slide freely within
that channel, or it can't pop out hard enough to do its job. There is an
"L" shaped piece pinned into the bolt that forms this channel.
Check to see if the ejector is rubbing against that piece, and if
necessary file down the piece just enough to let the ejector move back
and forth easily.
I know with the bolt all the way closed the
ejector is inside the bolt, and when you pull back the bolt the ejector
turns, and that they way its supposed to work
The ejector should not come out far enough to rotate or turn. As you
work the lever, the head on the lever inside the bolt bears against that
troublesome little collar, compressing the spring. The ejector is
pushing against the bottom half of the empty brass. When the empty
clears the chamber, the spring pressure from the ejector pushes it up
and out. The little lump on the end of the ejector leg should catch
against the pin holding the lever to the bolt and keep the ejector from
going out too far. That's why the ejector keeps trying to fall out
during reassembly--that pin isn't back in place yet to hold it where
it's supposed to be.
My Rossi jams with a round against the top of the chamber, or
sticking vertical out of the action, when I try to shoot .38 specials.
I had the same situation with a .45 Rossi trying to get it to feed
Schofields. Here's what I found: Open the action and look down at the
carrier (that's the part that lifts the loaded round into position for
the bolt to chamber it when you close the lever). It should have a
little stud or stop on it that should just allow a normal length
cartridge to pop out of the magazine and butt up against that stop. That
holds the cartridge in a consistent position for the bolt to pick it up.
But when you feed a shorter cartridge, like .38 special or .45
Schofield, the round doesn't go back against the stud, it just kind of
rattles around on the front of the carrier. This means the balance of
the cartridge is forward of where it normally would be. Now when the
carrier lifts the round, it tends to throw it up almost vertical, and
the round jams on the face of the barrel instead of going into the
chamber. The way I
> found to fix this is to make sure the left and right cartridge
guides fit exactly right. These are the parts near the top of the
receiver that align the cartridge with the chamber. The loaded round
should JUST BARELY slip between these guides without touching.
If there is too much clearance, it lets the round flip upwards like I
described above. However, if the round almost touches the guides, it
seems to keep it in place OK. If this is the problem, like it was with
mine, I fixed it by replacing the right cartridge guide with a new one
that happened to stick out into the receiver a little farther and thus
hold the cartridge more securely. Now .45 Colt and .45 Schofield both
feed fine. You can also try removing the cartridge guides and putting a
small shim underneath them to make them stick out further.
So if'n yer gonna fix them winchesters, then at
least talk about Rossi 92s.....mine shoots fine, etc. It is a bit stiff
in the loading gate and takes extra care to push em in. Any ideas on wut
to do???
There is no separate spring in the Rossi '92 that
holds the loading gate cover closed. Rather, think of the cover as a
leaf spring with a big end on it. The big end is the cover you see over
the loading port, and the rest of the spring runs back along the inside
of the receiver to where it is held in place by a screw. So what you
need to do to reduce the spring tension is remove the loading gate cover
and slim down the part of the spring running along the inside of the
receiver, using either a Dremel or files and stones. You don't want to
get it so light that the gate is not held firmly against the receiver
after the rifle is loaded, because then it will interfere with the
proper movement of cartridges from the magazine onto the carrier. So
it's basically a cut and try proposition--take a little off, put the
piece back in, see how it feels, take more off if needed.
One other thing--before you start, get a spare gate so
if you mess up the original, you aren't stuck with a non-functional
rifle. I think Interarms still has parts. Their phone numbers are
703-739-1582, or 703-548-1400. The parts guy is Hank Huber.
I finished the Rossi action job and boy is it
slick! Got another problem. The rifle is ejecting wrong. It did this
when I got it but I figured a little ejector work would cure the
problem.
Sometimes a loaded round ejects with the empty case. Also when you try
to chamber the first round two loaded rounds will eject and nothing goes
into the chamber.
I don't think it's a problem with the ejector. The
ejector only controls throwing out the empty brass, then contacts the
loaded round as it pushes it forward off the carrier into the chanber. I
would first check the overall lengh of your cartridges, since this is
easy to do. You don't say if you are using .38's or .357's, but the
Rossi's sometimes do not like to feed shorter rounds. This will more
commonly cause a round to jam against the top of the chamber or stick
vertically out of the action, but it can cause a round to be thrown
completely clear. If you are using .38's, try it with some .357's and
see if some of your problems go away.
Next, make sure the left and right cartridge guides fit exactly right.
These are the parts near the top of the receiver that align the
cartridge with the chamber. The loaded round should JUST BARELY slip
between these guides without touching. If there is too much clearance,
it lets the round flip upwards like I described above.
Hoever, if the round almost touches the guides, it seems to keep it in
place OK. If this is the problem, like it was with mine, I fixed it by
replacing the right cartridge guide with a new one that happened to
stick out into the receiver a litttle farther and thus hold the
cartridge more securely. You can also try removing the right cartridge
guide and putting a small shim underneath it to make it stick out
further.
The problem with two loaded rounds ejecting at once when you try to
chamber the first round is a little bizzarre. Try this: make up some
dummy rounds and load them into your rifle. Now open the lever far
enough to see into the action, but don't push the lever forward that
last little bit that makes the carrier come up. The last round loaded
should be sitting on the carrier, ready to be lifted up and chambered.
The round before it should be completely inside the magazine, with the
little spring loaded cartridge stop at the front of the left hand
cartridge guide resting against the back of the cartridge rim. This
cartridge stop is what keeps the next round in the magazine from coming
back too soon. It that next-to-last round is not completely in front of
the stop, you'll have problems.
Possible causes: 1) the rounds are too short, preventing the last round
from pushing the next-to-last round into the magazine; 2) you aren't
pushing the last round far enought into the action when you load; 3) the
cartridge stop is worn and needs replacing; 4) the spring on the
cartridge stop is broken or worn; or 5) it's dirty.
I'm assuming you cleaned it when you did the action job, so 5) should
not be a problem. If 3) or 4) were the case, you'd probably be having
similar problems on other rounds besides the first. So I'd focus on 1)
and 2).
And
Bull Schmitt's instructions for an action job, along with a couple of
suggestions from other folks:
The popular theory is that the rifles are left with
rough machined surfaces and this results in a stiff operation of the
action. There is some truth to this but it is not the most important
factor.
However, once you get the rifle apart you will notice bright spots on
the sliding/rubbing surfaces of the breech bolt and these indicate a
point of friction. Examine the mating surfaces to see if there are any
burrs that may be causing the these bright areas. You cannot eliminate
all contact between the breech bolt and the frame - don't even think of
trying. All you are looking for are rough spots on either the inside of
the frame or on the sides of the breech bolt. Before any metal is
removed try sliding the breech bolt back and forth by hand in the frame.
If you notice tight spots or roughness in its travel try to determine
what is causing it. You will probably find that slides pretty good AS
IS. If so leave it alone and proceed with the spring work described
below. Depending on the problem areas you may find, the fix will vary.
Rough spots can be slicked up with small files, stones or some form of
lapping compound. You DO NOT want to remove much metal - this is more of
a polishing operation. I used some 600 grit lapping compound sold by
Brownell's. If you use any kind of lapping compound be sure that you
thoroughly clean everything so that no compound remains because it will
continue to wear the metal as you use the rifle. If the rifle has
already been used quite a bit this whole polishing process may not be
necessary. If you attempt it, take your time because you cannot replace
the metal once you have removed it.
One area that seems to attract people's attention is the two curved
surfaces cut in the sides of the breech bolt towards the rear. When the
action is operated there are two locking bolts, one on each side that
slide up into place starting on these curved areas and end up sticking
slightly above the breech bolt when the action is closed.
When the action is cycled slowly and this area is examined a tightness
is felt as the bars begin to move along the curved surfaces and the
first thing everyone wants to do is polish those surfaces. Well that
ain't where the problem is! If those surfaces appear rough some
polishing may be in order, but notice that if the front vertical surface
of the slots that the two locking bolts are sliding in are changed the
headspace of the rifle will change and could result in a dangerous
situation. Care and judgement must be exercised here. If you don't feel
that you want to venture here then certainly DO NOT.
Up to this point we have concentrated on reducing
friction which may have been caused by rough machined surfaces rubbing
against each other. It has been my experience that you can put a lot of
effort into this "improvement", but the benefit is small.
The magic word is "springs"! There are two springs that are
causing the majority of the stiffness in the action. Let's take the easy
one first - the mainspring. It is too stiff. Cut 1 and 1/2 to 2 turns
off of one end of the spring. It is spring steel and is very hard. A
fine cutoff wheel on a Dremmel tool is good for this operation. Some
good quality side cutters may do the job. Careful filing with the corner
of a 3 sided needle file will also do the job. Begin by removing 1 and
1/2 turns first and then try the action of the rifle.
You should find that the action opens much easier and you won't have to
wrap the loop with leather to protect the backs of your fingers. You can
probably remove another 1/2 turn from the spring. If you remove too
much, the hammer will not strike the firing pin hard enough to set of
the primer.
If you do remove too much you can try to heat a few
turns of the spring in a flame until they BEGIN to turn dull red and let
them cool in the air. This will anneal (soften) the steel. By gently
pulling on the ends of the spring the annealed area can be stretch.
Reheat the same area as before and quench in oil (motor oil at room
temperature should be okay). You have now tempered the spring, but it is
too hard and will break. Now just reheat the same area until the oil on
the surface of the spring flashes into flame and remove the spring from
the heat source. You have now tempered the spring so it will bend within
reason without breaking. I suggest that you read up on working with
springs if you attempt this. The Dixie Gun Works catalog and some muzzle
loading books will describe the process much the same as I have. You are
on your own if you venture into this area.
Let's go on to the second spring. This is the one that
escapes notice and everybody smooths the heck out of the curved surfaces
mentioned earlier. Examine the face of the breech bolt and you will
notice a piece of metal protruding out from the surface of the breech
bolt. It is kind of odd shaped and extends part way up the right hand
side and part way across the bottom of the breech bolt. Push on it. Hard
right? This is the ejector that causes the empty case to be ejected into
the next county when you open the action.
Notice that when you are closing the action and the locking bolts are
beginning to engage the curved surfaces mentioned above, the ejector has
reached the back end of the barrel and is being forced flush with the
front surface of the breech bolt! That compression is the resistance you
feel when closing the action, not the friction of the locking bolts on
the curved surfaces. Most people see the locking bolts, but don't notice
the ejector. The solution here is the same as with the main spring.
Inside the breech bolt is a ejector coil spring about 3/4 of an inch
long. You have to remove about one to one and a half turns from it.
Unfortunately you also need to heat the spring, stretch it to about its
original length and re temper it as described earlier.
Reassemble the action and with a DUMMY or UNLOADED
cartridge try the action. You have not altered anything that should
effect the feeding of the cartridge. If you experience any problems in
that area, check that you have reassembled the action correctly. If
feeding is okay you should notice that the action opens and closes much
easier than before. In addition, your empty cases will not end up in the
next county, but should fall closer to where you are standing.
One other thing that can sometimes cause resistance in
the first or last little bit of lever travel is the spring-loaded button
on the lever that locks it closed. This can sometimes use some smoothing
up, as well as the area on the frame where the button makes contact as
it closes.
But on my rifle, the elevator sticks real bad. There
is a little spring loaded plunger on the side of the elevator that seems
to stick and make it tough to work the action smoothly. To fix this,
remove the screws on either side of the receiver holding the elevator in
place. Use a small puch to drive out the pin holding the spring loaded
plunger in place. The pin comes out from bottom to top. Remember to keep
a finger over the plunger to keep it from flying across the room. Polish
the plunger, cut down the spring to about 4.5 coils, and lubricate the
whole works with a good thick lube. Reassemble by putting the spring and
plunger in place, holding the plunger so that the cutout in it lines up
with the hole for the pin, and drive in the pin from top to bottom. The
little ridges on one end of the pin should wind up on the top side of
the carrier--in other words, the ridges hold the pin in place, so don't
try to drive them all the way through the carrier.
So there you go. The collected wisdom from the cas-l
fire about Rossi 92's.
Hope this is of use!
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