London Navy blew nipple

[jan_buchwald]

My original London Navy blew a nipple the other day. I has been a problem, getting pistons long enough, so I put a ring under, dont know if that's the reason.
I forund the nipple, and could not see any damage on whether the nipple or the cylinder.
I screwed it back in, and tightened it with a nipple wrench, but I hardly dare try again.
Anyone who knows where to get oversize nipples, long enough for a London Navy?
Or what do I do?
Living in Denmark, I will not part with the cylinder for repair in another country

 

[TFoley]

I bleeve that the originals used a #26 Joyce-style cap. My best suggestion is to call Bálasz Németh at Kapszli.hu and ask him if he knows a source in Europe. When I bought my Colt Second series Walker, that too had very long nipples that I changed for regular #11. I recommend that you do the same - Colt original are VERY hard to find.

 

[Columbus]

My original London Navy blew a nipple the other day. I has been a problem, getting pistons long enough, so I put a ring under, dont know if that's the reason.
I forund the nipple, and could not see any damage on whether the nipple or the cylinder.
I screwed it back in, and tightened it with a nipple wrench, but I hardly dare try again.
Anyone who knows where to get oversize nipples, long enough for a London Navy?
Or what do I do?
Living in Denmark, I will not part with the cylinder for repair in another country

Have you tried Track of the Wolf?

 

[Stantheman86]

An original Colt London Navy?

If it blew a nipple maybe it's telling you it wants to retire.

Put that thing up and just shoot the Uberti repro, that Colt is a piece of Cultural History. Enjoy it for what it is.

 

[caspar25]

http://www.vorderlader-shop.de/index.php?cat=01
Why wander far off when the good is so near.
They got a whole bunch of different pistons there.
One of them is this repair piston in M7 thread.
With a set of M7 taps I could help you out on loan. The postage Germany Denmark should not be so high for a letter.

 

[Zonie]

Since we're talking about a real Colt London 1851 model pistol here, I think some of Turner Kirkland's comments, made in the Dixie Gun Works catalogs 40+ years ago may be interesting.

"Colt nipples create quite a problem in that 100 years ago the Colt Company apparently made two sizes of nipples varying only in the length. One type is about 1/64" longer. To the best of my knowledge no one has determined exactly which pistol required the long nipple. Others disagree with this. I myself have seen both kinds on all guns. One individual has advised that the long Colt nipple positively was made for the London manufactured Colts and I am personally inclined to go along with his thinking. This might mean that all American Colt Revolvers used the short nipple and the London Revolvers used the long nipple. So we are now selling a long and short nipple that will fit all Colts and Remingtons. The short one is likely to fit the revolvers that are tight and long one will fit those with lots of cylinder play and the London Colts. Do not order a long nlpple just because your gun is not firing. It could be that your cylinder is worn to the point that it sits too far forward away from the hammer, or the hammer nose is worn out. This will have to be adjusted by a competent gunsmith. A perfectly adjusted revolver hammer should not quite touch the nipple and this space will be less than the thickness of the cap. Do not replace old nipples unless absolutely necessary because this decreases the value of the gun."

I should point out that I just searched the Dixie on line catalog and it doesn't seem to offer these special nipples any more.
Also, the catalog specifically says the Colt's used a .225-32 threaded nipple. The M7 thread mentioned above would be oversize because 7mm = .2756" in diameter. I will add, a #12 thread and a M5.5 thread as a major diameter of .216" so don't try using one of the nipples with this thread size. It will probably blow out of the gun.

I should also mention, there were misprints in the Dixie catalogs so before trusting the .225-32 thread mentioned it would be advisable to pull all of the existing nipples and have the threads measured by a competent machinist. Messing up the threads in a old, original gun is a poor way to preserve history.

 

[jan_buchwald]

View attachment 25859 Vorderlader-Shop | Detailansicht | VORDERLADER-SHOP |

Thank you, but I believe that's a musket nipple