7 replies to this topic

[badger]

I decided to stop being just a collector and have been trying to mod my LS since Monday. I removed the AR and did a spring replacement (I used a 4" long spring I picked up at Home Depot. It has an ID of 7/8" and a 2mm wire guage. The banging of the spring inside the gun doesn't bother me and I have no other gun to steal a spring from without damaging part of my collection). I even changed the o-ring instead of adding two since I couldn't find any two of the same size that would fit on the plunger. I reassembled the gun tonight and tried to prime it. The charging handle pulls back just fine, but the Trigger Plate won't catch the plunger and lock it into place.

I refered to CaptainSlug's picture for guidance, but I can't seem to find the problem.

Before anyone says that I should have performed my first mod on a NF, I personally felt confident that I wouldn't break the LS in the process of modifying it. I look at it this way...if I can successfully modify the LS, I can probably modify anything.

I looked through alot of the major LS mod topics and couldn't find any topic asking a similar question, but with all there is on NH, I could have missed it or even not typed the right words into search. Let me know what I have done wrong.

[Retiate]

I had the same problem and started a topic Here.
I don't know if I used the same spring you did, but I gave the dimensions in my post. I never got around to cutting the spring down, so I don't know if that works or not.

[shoeshine5]

How strong is the spring you added? The catch can only hold so much unmodified.

Hopefully someone can be of more help than I, sorry.

[DX-Robert]

I think he meant that when he pulls the cock back, the plunger won't lock. The handle just slides back to where it started. Even with a really heavy-duty spring, you should be able to cock the gun. It won't stay cocked long if the spring is really strong and the catch is unmodded, but it should cock. This used to happen to me all the time when I went to test my LS after closing it. It just means that something is not in its proper place. One tiny little thing barely in the wrong place will cause the whole gun to not fire, such as not having the right side of the plunger facing up or having the trigger plate not resting properly. Before I got really familiar with the LS internals, I pulled up a large picture of them in their places to check my work against. You can tell success when the casing closes perfectly naturally. Having to put even a little bit of pressure in any area indicates that not all is where it should be. Hope that helps.

[Fireshot]

To add on to Duxburian's post, almost every time I work on my ls, closing it takes a few tries because the plunger tube likes to pop out the tiniest bit while putting the shell together. My first time modding this gun, the plunger wouldn't catch, and it was because of this.

[Forsaken angel24]

I would put money on the fact that the springs's compressed length is too big or you need to add another spring to the catch spring. I had to add another stronger catch spring to my existing one and now the catch holds just fine. It cost me a dent in the wall to realize I had to do this but it works great now.

For the record: I posted a while back that I was working on a 100% air tight seal longshot. The idea I worked with kept on jamming. I have had a new revolutionary idea and if all goes well a write up will be on the way by February.

Edited by Forsaken_angel24, 05 January 2007 - 01:47 AM.

[badger]

I had the same problem and started a topic Here.
I don't know if I used the same spring you did, but I gave the dimensions in my post. I never got around to cutting the spring down, so I don't know if that works or not.

I tried the spring you used, in fact, I got the exact same dimensions at Home Depot. I am now using a different spring since the guage of the spring was way too high.

How strong is the spring you added? The catch can only hold so much unmodified.

Hopefully someone can be of more help than I, sorry.

The first one I used when I posted this was identical to Ratiate's spring, 7/8" ID, 4" Length and 0.080 diameter spring steel. Now I am using 2 smaller springs. I don't remember the ID of the springs but the guage was 0.062. To make the two springs work, I actually soldered them together on their factory cut points and then cut off enough of it to fit onto the plunger rod perfectly. This new spring combination still has power but is a bit easier to pull back.

I think he meant that when he pulls the cock back, the plunger won't lock. The handle just slides back to where it started. Even with a really heavy-duty spring, you should be able to cock the gun. It won't stay cocked long if the spring is really strong and the catch is unmodded, but it should cock. This used to happen to me all the time when I went to test my LS after closing it. It just means that something is not in its proper place. One tiny little thing barely in the wrong place will cause the whole gun to not fire, such as not having the right side of the plunger facing up or having the trigger plate not resting properly. Before I got really familiar with the LS internals, I pulled up a large picture of them in their places to check my work against. You can tell success when the casing closes perfectly naturally. Having to put even a little bit of pressure in any area indicates that not all is where it should be. Hope that helps.

I never had a problem putting the gun back together. Everytime I closed the shell and started to retighten the screws, I would turn each screw counter-clockwise to prevent cross-threading them and tearing the holes apart and to line up the threading before I cranked them down. I've opened this thing about 6-8 times now and the screws and frame are still doing good.

I would put money on the fact that the springs's compressed length is too big or you need to add another spring to the catch spring. I had to add another stronger catch spring to my existing one and now the catch holds just fine. It cost me a dent in the wall to realize I had to do this but it works great now.

You may actually be right about the comprseed length. It just smacked me in the head right now. D'OH!!! I never thought to look at that.

Now, when you say you added another stronger spring to the trigger plate, are you saying now that there are two springs on there, or just one stronger spring? I added a new spring to mine that is stronger than the original. Let me know. If all goes well, I'll be either finished modifying the gun by tonight, or I will be selling some LS parts on NH tomorrow night.

[Forsaken angel24]

To be honest I have no idea what a trigger plate is. I actually added another stronger spring ot the existing one. The spring I am talking about is the catch spring.