Wheellock disassembly and cleaning?

[deGheyn]

Ok, so I took my India wheellock to the range. Other than the pyrite breaking into small pieces, it was a lot of fun. I cam home removed the lock, cleaned the barrel & wiped down the lock. After that, it didn't want to go back in to the stock. The sear was hitting the trigger. What the what? I ended up using dental floss to hold the sear behind the trigger as I put it in the stock, but now it doesn't wind & lock into place. Does anyone have(or want to make) a disassembly and cleaning video? How about some ideas about what happened? Yes, I know it's an India piece, but it was fine until I tried to clean it.

 

[Canute Rex]

The sear on a wheellock is really two sears. The one that engages the back of the wheel is like a teeter totter, pivoting in the middle. The forward ends has the nub (or ball bearing) that fits in the depression in the back of the wheel. The back end engages the other sear that is pushed back by the trigger. Call them the trigger sear and the wheel sear. When you span (wind) the lock, the nub/ball drops in and the forward end of the wheel sear moves towards the lock plate. The back end of the wheel sear moves away from the lock plate and catches on a notch in the trigger sear. Pull the trigger sear back and the wheel sear drops off that notch towards the lock plate.

First, try spanning and firing the lock off the gun, just to make sure the mechanism is working. When mounting the lock you might want to try holding the trigger forward instead of the sear back. Easier and more effective, I believe.

Disassembling the India locks is tricky because they use a little ball bearing under the wheel. It has a powerful desire to bounce away into a corner. I would recommend spraying water forcefully between the wheel and the lock plate and then WD40-ing that gap. Black powder crud accumulates behind the wheel.

Post a photo or two of the back of your lock and I might (might) be able to tell you more.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

Canute is dead on, But the longer lover that either Trapster wheel or traps the bar that holds the wheel is called the ‘sear lever’. The shorter piece that gets actuated by the trigger is the ‘sear arm’ or the ‘sear’ itself.

Is it possible you may have missed oriented the wheel off the tumbler? I did that once when I took my first wheellock apart.

For cleaning, I do not remove my wheel on every shooting session, but I do spray behind the wheel with a gun cleaning spray fluid or brake cleaning fluid. It works fantastic!

Just make sure to follow-up later ans spray behind the wheel again with WD-40, then a good oil like Ballistol or something like CLP.

 

[TobJohn]

Canute is dead on, But the longer lover that either Trapster wheel or traps the bar that holds the wheel is called the ‘sear lever’. The shorter piece that gets actuated by the trigger is the ‘sear arm’ or the ‘sear’ itself.

Is it possible you may have missed oriented the wheel off the tumbler? I did that once when I took my first wheellock apart.

For cleaning, I do not remove my wheel on every shooting session, but I do spray behind the wheel with a gun cleaning spray fluid or brake cleaning fluid. It works fantastic!

Just make sure to follow-up later ans spray behind the wheel again with WD-40, then a good oil like Ballistol or something like CLP.

Does the pan cover need to be removed and cleaned out each time? Is there enough space for the arm attachment part to get gummed up?

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

Does the pan cover need to be removed and cleaned out each time? Is there enough space for the arm attachment part to get gummed up?

Have never removed the pan cover but once, cleanable without removing. Of course, when new to me, I did polish the underside so that fouling is less apt to build up or stick ...

 

[deGheyn]

I was actually trying to avoid dissasembly, but I think I may have pushed some crud behind the sear when I wiped it down. Kinda hard to see in there. The wheel feels like it's binding. Anyway, all I did was take it off, spray with ballistol/water mix, wipe & spray with ballistol. It is not as clean as I would like. I did loosen the wheel lug so I could slide a patch behind the wheel since it was pretty dirty there. The ball bearing was not removed, but maybe I caused things to misalign. Putting the lock back in the stock, the trigger was pushed as far forward as possible, but the sear arm would not clear. The arm had a little wiggle, that's why I pulled it back. I ran out of time yesterday, but when I get a chance I'll take it off again & post some pictures. Thanks for the help. I'm saving my pennies to get a real wheellock carbine and hoping I can find someone to build it.

 

[Canute Rex]

I'll bet that little ball bearing is somewhere it shouldn't be. The sear lever (Thanks, Flint62) might be toggled too far one way or the other.

If the lock isn't spanned, then the ball bearing will be pushing up (away from the lockplate) on the forward end of the sear lever and the back end will be closer to the sear plate and won't engage the notch on the sear. If the lock isn't spanned and the back of the sear lever *does* engage the notch on the sear, then that ball bearing is AWOL.

When you fully span the lock the forward end of the sear lever should drop a bit as the bearing drops into the dimple on the back of the wheel. The back end should come up and click into the sear.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

If you had removed the wheel, you might not have 'clocked' it correctly upon reassembly. Then the sear lever nose won't push IN on the ball bearing to trap the wheel and hold it at full cock, as the divot for the sear ball is not where it should be at full cock or wind.

You can figure it out, as most wheelies give up to 3/4 of a turn at most when cranked. With the spring hung on the tumbler and relaxed, without affixing the wheel (remove wheel guard and sometimes remove or loosen the pan) ... and with the INSIDE of the lockplate UP as you look at it ... hold the wheel over the tumbler just in your hand.

Rotate it so that the ball bearing divot appears to line up with the sear lever nose hole, while the 'square' drive of the wheel also orients to the square drive of the tumbler. That is the full cock/wound position. So then rotate the wheel in your hand 3/4 of a turn or less CLOCK-WISE, as that is how the wheel needs to be affixed when the mechanism is at rest.

As once wound, again looking down at the inside of the lockplate, the wheel winds counter-clockwise. This should do it for you ... PM me if needed ...

 

[deGheyn]

Ok, so this time I took the wheel off. Sure looked like the back of it could use some polishing. It appears that the Ballistol is not enough to lube the lock. I used some bore butter and the binding disappeared. Huzzah! The issue with the tight trigger/sear bar mating in the stock appears to be the original factory fit. I managed to put a pick up behind the trigger thru the stock & coax everything into position. She's back together & functioning correctly. Now I just need to figure out how to turn these rocks I bought into properly sized pyrites. Thanks for the help guys!

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

I diamond-hone the back of the wheel a smooth as I can …