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Miroku 1873 problems? Thanks El Cubano!


levi littleton

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There is a wonderful thread about tuning the  '73 Miroku in archives.  

 

 

I'd asked about a couple of problems I had with my rifle that never got answered.  It is answered now.

 

I had until this morning a problem closing the lever.  Never took the time to really sort it out but seems I am not the only one with something similar happening.   El Cubano sent me a PM and mentioned his problem a few days ago and what he was seeing.  I hadn't had the side places off mine since last year and never  bothered to look at the bolt.  Bingo!   Cubano saw if before I even thought about it.

 

"Noticed you have the same issue I do, the lever seems to have to cam the links in even before it hits the lever safety. Did you ever figure out how to clean this up? Seems to me like the bolt actually has too much material on that block in front of the links and my links are actually deflecting out a bit to account for being too long. One side is more or less perfect, it cams in just as the lever closes and is just a very slight lock, the other side needs a plastic mallet to unlock it. " El Cabano 

 

The camming action on my carbine as I closed the action was hard enough it gave my wife a full set of blisters across her fingers after just one short 5 stage match.  I found how hard the lever was to close really annoying.  We have other guns to shoot so it wasn't a big deal.  I had set the Miroku aside and figured I'd sort it out later...….now a year later I just got back to it.

 

I had thought it the links.  It isn't.  It was the bolt and how the bolt is fitted by the factory.  Just too much steel left  where the bolt is faced off and fitted to the receiver on my gun. It would have taken a lot of rounds to  beat this one into submission.   Literally 3 minutes and the careful use of a #2 Swiss file recut the bolt and now the action is typical,  '73 smooth.

 

If you look at the first picture at the bolt  where it engages the frame there is a  V there where  metal contacts and then there is open space going up towards the top of the receiver.   Not a lot of metal  contact where the bolt meets the receiver.  In the 2nd photo you can see how Miroku fits the bolt by cutting the front edge to mate with the receiver.  My gun had just a tiny bit too much metal left here which made the lever really hard to close.  A few strokes with a fine #2 Swiss file solved the problem.  But it would be really easy to cut too much here...so I would recommend going slow and testing as you go.  Also worth pulling the links out one side at a time, then working the bolt and

making sure the bolt was cut square to the frame originally.  Mine was.  El Cubano's was not.

 

Hope this helps someone else and thanks again El Cubano for pointing me in the right direction. 

 

Upper left hand corner of the photo you can see space between the bolt and the receiver.   The hard camming to get the lever closed was caused by not enough metal taken off the bolt when fitting it to the frame.  

 

 

IMG_2906 (2).JPG

 

IMG_2906 (2)_LI.jpg

 

Compare the difference in contact area between bolt and frame on these two rifles above and below.  Upper one has a problem closing the lever into battery...lower one does not ( in the red circle)   Below:   The toggle links still in place and bolt all the way to  the rear.  The milled surface of the bolt shows metal in the white.  That surface is what I cut down a tiny bit while still keeping the cut on the bolt square to its mating surface on the receiver.   Pressure was relieved once I did and the lever became much, much easier to close.  

 

IMG_2894 (2)_LI.jpg

 

IMG_2894 (2).JPG

 

 

 

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Glad it solved your issue! mine was actually .006 off between each side, once I evened them up and tuned an extra set of lifter springs I had the rifle is 1 finger light to open and close it.

 

I did also check head space on mine to be a .005 after so after a few thousand rounds to finish wearing in the bolt it should be the perfect .004.

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19 minutes ago, El Cubano said:

Glad it solved your issue! mine was actually .006 off between each side, once I evened them up and tuned an extra set of lifter springs I had the rifle is 1 finger light to open and close it.

 

I did also check head space on mine to be a .005 after so after a few thousand rounds to finish wearing in the bolt it should be the perfect .004.

Aren't those specs backwards? :huh:-HS increases, as wear sets in?

OLG

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WOW Where was this post a year ago?

Just shot another 2 day, 10 stage match this weekend with mine.

I have learned to keep my thumb on top of the tang to help close the action.

Kept thinking it would get better the more I shot it, has slightly, but was still stiff.

Read this post after disassembling and cleaning this morning, thought I would check mine and see if it had this issue, 5 minutes and I have a new rifle!!

Winchester had this gun in their service department for 2 months last spring for this and a timing issue, neither were fixed. I found the link on timing a 73 and fixed the timing issue last year, now the stiff closing is fixed!

Feels like new rifle!!

 

Thanks you El Cubano and Levi :)

 

Asa

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