New Walker

[t.l.a.r. eng]

Just recieved a new Uberti 1847 Walker from Dixie yesterday and am surprised at Uberti's lack of detail.
Is it just me, or should the inside of a brass trigger guard be finished allso? :idunno:
My 1858 Remington was the same way, grinder marks inside the trigger guard. Not a big deal to correct, and maybe I shouldn't be so darn picky.

The Walker loading lever spring fell out of the barrel the second opening of the lever, it just needs finished staking to the barrel.
The rest of the fit/finish/timing seems good, so I am not sending it back. Maybe I am expecting too much. :hmm:

Waiting for a .457 ball mold to see how this thing will shoot.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

I bought my Walker several years ago. Don't remember if the inside was pretty on the trigger guard. Spring on the lever should have been done better. You can shoot .454 balls through most Uberti's.

52 grains of 3Fg Goex, a wonder-wad and a .454 Hornady work very well for me!

Good luck with yours and ENJOY the BLAST!

Dave

 

[torn moc]

naw....Grinder marks? Shouldnt be any anywhere on the gun...My Walker was produced in 1969 and is pretty as can be all over same as the Draggon parduced in 2007....sweet as peaches... No grinder marks.

As they say...your trigger guard musta been made on Monday...

 

[grey8833]

t.l.a.r. eng:

Had the same experence with the Walker loading lever spring. Fell out, staked it, fell out again. Seemed the dovetail was too big. Purchased a new spring to see if I could get a bigger base - nope. I really liked the gun and had done a bunch of work to make it a top notch shooter, so I got mad and made a spring for it from scratch from Brownells' spring stock I had from my muzzleloading builds. New spring came out really nice, fits the dovetail, don't fall out and now it even keeps the loading lever up.

Walker Work

Mike F

 

[t.l.a.r. eng]

I just finished re-staking the lever spring in the dove-tail and it made it solid. I think the next step is to re-shape the spring so the loading lever is more secure as it doesn't engage the lever far enough.

This Uberti Walker allso suffers from cylinder lock up when the wedge is inserted anything more than hand tight and there is zero clearance between the barrel and cylinder. The wedge doesn't go into the frame far enough for the spring to catch on the other side. After doing a search, there is info on adding to the arbor to increase the gap.
Some finish fitting needs to be done to make it the way I want it. Probably will change out the Uberti nipples for Treso's also.
I don't want to sound negative, but for $350 plus, it should at least be shootable out of the box.
But, being a perfectionist it's a great piece to start with and I can't wait to shoot it. :thumbsup:

 

[denster]

The wedge should only be put in with thumb pressure no more is needed and driving it in will ruin the nice fit that comes from the factory. Unberti uses a tapered arbor going into a tapered arbor hole under the barrel. The two tapers should be fully engaged just as the barrel lug meets the frame. Forcing it on further with the wedge eventually ruins this nice fit and also can stick the two tapers together making it difficult to remove the barrel as well as doing other damage. The wedge should go through far enough that the radius clears the far side it doesn't matter if the spring tip clears or not. If the wedge needs to go through further slide the edge of the wedge that is toward the muzzle along a flat file and check frequently as it doesn't take but a couple of thousandths to get it to fit. It's easy to make a spacer to lengthen the arbor check back a couple of pages to find a discussion of how to.

 

[grey8833]

t.l.a.r. eng:

Same problems, same solutions. I swapped out the Uberti nipples for Tresco, very happy with the result. They look cool and work better.

The Colt design wanted the arbor to bottom out on the base of the barrel arbor socket. If there is a gap between the arbor face and the bottom of the barrel's arbor socket, driving in the wedge will pull the barrel back on the arbor, pivoting on the frame pins (at the bottom of the barrel assembly). This drives the forcing cone back into the cylinder, closing the gap needed to allow the cylinder to rotate, it can get bad enough to force the cylinder to the rear of the frame and lock it up. I believe this gap also introduces unintended "give" in the frame to barrel assembly, firing the gun "flexes" the assembly, loosening the wedge - constantly.

Uberti pistols are known for their problems with arbor fit, where as other Italian makers have cylinder locking alignment issues.

The arbor issue is easy to fix. Pull the cylinder and insert the arbor into the barrel socket but don't mount the frame pins. Twist the barrel to the frame and see how much "extra space" is in the arbor well. Fill that space with a washer. Someone here had a nice procedure - used a screw and a threaded washer so he could keep trying thinner washers (and get them back) till it fit. Once you have a fit, JB Weld is perfect to mount the washer (under compression it's pretty good stuff). With the arbor fitted you can not drive the wedge in too tight - as the arbor bottoms out in the arbor well on the barrel, preventing the dreaded cylinder lock up.

After I got the arbor fitted, I also stoned off the forcing cone to give an even gap, top to bottom (as opposed to pie shaped). I also filed down the rear sight (aka: the hammer). Very, very happy with the accuracy results. Gun will outshoot most all modern pistols at 25 yards, only looses ground to the target pistols. Which makes the looks on the other shooters faces so much fun "What the 'ell was that! And what is that stink!"

Hey hey, just me and my Walker > Don't confuse old with ineffective.

And all this work is why I made a spring.

Mike F

 

[denster]

Actually with Uberti and their tapered arbor and arbor hole you can't get an accurate read on the varience between arbor length and arbor hole depth by sliding the the barrel on and rotating it down to the frame to see how much it overlaps as the taper or what remains of it will interfere. The best way is to take two number six washers and measure the thickness of both then drop them in the arbor hole and put the barrel back on the gun and measure the distance from the barrel lug to the frame with a thickness guage or dial calipers. Subtract that measurement from the thickness of the two washers and you have an accurate thickness for your plug.

 

[t.l.a.r. eng]

Did some measuring this morning and discovered the arbor is tapered as you say, but the arbor hole is not tapered. it appears to be center drilled, then drilled with a common 135 degree jobber drill with a tapered bottom hole. The non tapered hole would explain why the barrel moves when the wedge is tightened, the only contact with the arbor is the arbor taper at the mouth of the hole.
Using the washer method and measuring the gap, It looks like a spacer of .150 is needed. Tomorrows project will be making a spacer plug from steel on the lathe.
If the wedge is only pushing against one side and the other side is springy, why wouldn't the wedge come loose when shooting? :idunno:
I would think the wedge would be more effective pushing against two non-movable sides. Just my observations. :hmm:

 

[denster]

The non tapered hole is highly unusual. To measure this correctly you need a set of small hole guages to measure the diameter at the bottom of the hole. .150 sounds like a lot all of the Ubertis I have done it has ranged from .048 to .052. With the wedge it is pushing against two flat surfaces on either side of the barrel lug. Uberti has the wedge system correct in that there is a taper in the end of the arbor slot corresponding to the taper of the wedge. With the other side of the wedge pushing against the flats on either side the barrel moves straight to the rear and is locked with equal pressure on both sides.

 

[t.l.a.r. eng]

I double checked the hole with an internal bore guage and found the hole is not tapered to the bottom. The mouth of the arbor hole is belled .002 from pushing against the tapered arbor. I'm not sure how a tapered arbor is supposed to work with a straight hole. Made a .152 plug that matches the 135 degree taper of the bottom of the hole and now the barrel mounts securely and the wedge stays tight with a gently tap from a small nylon hammer.
I straightened out the face of the forcing cone with a stone and set the cylinder gap to .004
When the new nipples arrive, it will be time to see if this Walker is a keeper or not. :thumbsup:

 

[denster]

You are right a tapered arbor will not work with a straight hole. I don't have a walker to check but my Uberti 1860 army and 1851 Navies have tapered holes that corrsepond to the arbor taper. Sounds like you have the situation well in hand though.

 

[t.l.a.r. eng]

Appreciate all the help guys, learning alot on this forum. :thumbsup:

 

[denster]

I should mention that the taper that I'm talking about is not much. The arbor on both my 1860 and 1851 that I bought new, and installed the end plug on to lengthen the arbor, is .425 tapering to .420 that is only .005 of an inch. It would not take but a few times beating the wedge in to wallow out that taper if you are one of the believers in adjusting the gun with the wedge.

 

[t.l.a.r. eng]

Finally got a chance to shoot the new Walker, and my faith in Uberti has been restored.
Great groups right off with 40 grains Goex for starters and .454 home cast balls. Working up to over 50 grains to find what it likes.
Interestingly, this gun shoots better than the 1858 Remmington, a little tad nose heavy, but great sights and trigger pull.
The hammer channel in the frame makes for a great funnel for cap pieces to fall directly into the trigger, bolt mechanism. :redface: Should know better to tilt the gun to the side when cocking.

All in all a great piece and definately a keeper!
Wedge stays tight, cylinder gap stays the same, and no binding after 30 shots. :thumbsup: