sear spring on a sharps?

[joeyb]

Friends,
Does an 1859 Sharps carbine have a sear spring? I'm troubleshooting my carbine because it does not lock on the half-cock position. In disassembling the lock, I found that there is no sear spring. Is there supposed to be?
- Joe Bordonaro

[Greg Ogdan, 11444]

Joe,
Look closely, there is only spring and it functions as both hammer and sear spring. Or at least it should if it is not broken.

[joeyb]

Greg,
You mean the mainspring functions as both the hammer spring and the sear spring?
- Joe

[Jim Brady Knap's Battery]

It's a V shaped spring bearing on both the tumbler and the trigger sear.

Jim Brady
2249V
Knap's Battery

[joeyb]

Jim,
Yes, the mainspring is a large, v shaped spring. One end rests on the tumbler stirrup. Since I have disassembled the lock, I'm not sure where the other end of the spring rests. I guess it's supposed to be resting on the sear?
- Joe

[Dominic Infante, 8359V]

An excellent article in the Skirmish Line several years ago on modifications of the Sharps lock by Dave France should be helpful regarding your problem. He illustrates how to reshape the sear retaining screw head into a cam shape so that by turning the screw to varying positions changes the tension the sear end of the spring places on the sear. You would probably need to turn such a reworked screw head so that more pressure is placed on the sear. France emphasizes that you should not take out the retaining screw without first dismounting the mainspring, otherwise the sear spring will be damaged.

Another approach to this problem is to increase the thickness and/or length of the sear end of the mainspring so that more pressure can be placed on the sear. A simple way to do this is take a piece of metal (such as sheet metal), shape is to fit tightly around the end of the sear spring, and cement it in place (J & B Weld works very well for this). You may have to experiment a bit to find the correct thickness and/or length, but once you do you will have a lock which not only goes into half-cock as it is supposed to but also has a nice trigger pull of 3+ pounds. The key I believe is to find a way of applying the correct pressure on the sear.

[joeyb]

Thank you. That is the info I need to allow me to try to fix the problem.

[AMB]

Check here for some great information on tuning and fixing locks.

http://www.n-ssa.org/NORTHWEST/Modifying%20Locks.htm

[joeyb]

Thanks for the link.

[Jim Brake 3587]

Is your Sharps an original ? If not it may have a fly in it .'59 Armi -sports have a fly attached to the tumbler