Remington Walker Repair

Part Three- Assembly and Testing

The first part to go in the housing is the trigger return spring. It's a short, stout little thing that has a worm hole to another dimension and can get out of a pickle jar with a screw top lid when you're not looking. Yes, I have extras.

Here it is again laying on the housing pretty much in the correct position.

We'll put the spring in the easy way a little later. Make sure the pickle jar lid is on tight and install the trigger first. One end of the trigger pin shows wear from rubbing on the bolt stop linkage so that end hangs out the left side for a peg for the linkage to ride on.

TEST the trigger on its pivot without the return spring. We know it can't go back any further than the sear adjusting screw which we didn't mess with, but the trigger should be free to for the top portion to swing out of sight of the little view window and back

into the little window half way with NO impediments, no rubbing, or hitches or glitches.

Remove the lower-front trigger housing screw and drop the trigger return spring in the hole. Make sure it goes all the way to the bottom and rest against the face of the trigger (notice trigger, not connector. The connector is 'gone'.) Re-install the screw. You'll not feel any resistance in the trigger until the screw is nearly flush with the housing. That screw will adjust the trigger pull by varying the spring tension. You notice how little screw adjustment it takes to make a big difference in just the first .030 of trigger movement that will be the final adjustment.

Now, screw in the top screw until it touches the trigger and then back off one full turn. We'll re-adjust that later, but that screw will be needed for the sear spring soon.

Remember the bolt lock safety? It's time to make it a post '82 safety by grinding the end off of the locking leg of the safety.

The repaired safety on the right has the locking leg cut back and rounded.

The locking leg now does not enter the slot it the bolt body under the bolt handle so the gun can be opened, unloaded and loaded with the safety in the ON position. The factorymade that change in '82 and then had a notice about 2001 that had people send in their rifles for that repair above and charged a fee. I forget now what it was, twenty bucks, I think. This particular rifle's safety legs were splayed about .010 which caused the leg to hit the receiver when the trigger was assembled. A picture of that repair later.

Assuming you've cleaned all the parts, let's get it together. The trigger is installed and ithas the return spring installed also. The over-travel screw is in close to the trigger but not yet adjusted.

Some prefer to assemble safety parts after the trigger is installed in the action. Don't feelobligated to do it this way just because this is the order given.

The safety axle goes through the bolt stop linkage and then the housing from the left side.

The shortest leg of the safety is the safety cam. That's the part that lifts the tail of the sear off the trigger and holds back the firing pin. That cam is very important. DON'T mess with it, but inspect it closely. Is it worn so it has a cast up burr on the edges? Has it got any sign of 'coining' like the edge of a US quarter coin (and dime)? If so, it needs replacing. I'll go through the test procedures and show pictures.

Be sure the bolt stop link is over the trigger pivot pin. The short leg of the safety, the safety cam goes into the rear of the trigger housing leaving the longest leg outside the housing on the right side.

Put a dab of low temperature grease on the detent ball and drop it in the hole in the safety leg and then position the spring cover over it with the little legs straddling the safety. Press down on the spring cover and re-install the E clip with the legs pointing

downward and the dimple in the middle.

The short little legs on the spring go all the way to the rear. The spring cover IS the spring and it has to be compressed while the safety axle is pushed hard from the back AND the E-clip has to be positioned and pushed on the axle.....and a picture has to be taken from an inch away. Right.

You will notice the tool I'm using to push on the E-clip, a toothbrush handle. They don't run half way up a thumbnail when it slips like a screw driver blade does. You've been warned...

Flip the safety back and forth several times to spread the lube to both positions of the detent ball. Check for free movement of the bolt stop linkage. It should rattle up and down.

Again, a personal preference. Feel free to do it anyway you like. A bench vise is really

nice, but this series has been done using a pair of tennis shoes on a table top.

Start with the barreled action laying on its left side with the barrel pointing left. This is a matter of personal preference but you're free to have the barrel pointing right if you like. I like to work 'over the action' for better visibility. Make sure you have a bright background on the bench or table top. We'll be lining up holes and driving pins and its good to be able to see daylight through the holes.

The sear spring fits in the hole visible through the top of the trigger, but don't install it yet. When it comes time to put the spring in, that hole is hard to see so remember whereit is.

You see I cheated and used an old, uncleaned picture. That's a great picture of the contact patch between the sear (removed) and the top of the trigger. The bright shiny line measures (.022 wide which is overly wide for a 1974 made gun. These were much more common from 1978 on and were called “Lawyer Triggers” because they were SO hard and gritty they had to be adjusted to be usable. The wide contact is what caused this trigger to have several 'creeps' before the break. Since this trigger was before the factory re-set of tolerances to the high side in '78, the large trigger-sear overlap was either a factory mistake or a piece of scrap could have been interposed between the

trigger and the sear adjustment screw. If that scrap was say .005 thick and the worker set the trigger to the more common .017, then the scrap fell out and allowed the extra .005 inch of engagement. There is no way to know how it happened to be wrong but wedo know the sear engagement screw is still sealed and the sear engagement is a 'bunch'.

Back to assembly--- Gently insert the trigger housing into the slot in the bottom of the receiver and line it up so you see light all the way through. We're just looking and planning at this stage. Just see how hard it is to hold the housing exactly right. It takes some dexterity to line it up, keep in lined up and then use a hammer on it. The trick is getting the pin through without hitting the housing. I do it from the left. Remove the housing for now and turn the action over so you can insert the front (shortest) sear pin from the left side. It goes through the small notch in the bolt stop slot. Start the pin in and drive in just far enough to see a slice of it in the trigger housing slot. About .005 of the pin should be 'proud' in the slot. Use the pin punch to adjust the pin just so. Now, rotate the action back over so you can hold the action and the trigger housing and by looking through the hole and by feeling that small sliver of pin in the off-side hole, alignthe housing with the pin and gently tap the pin just enough to hold the housing on one side. We still have to put the sear spring and sear in, but it's much easier if the housing is located on the end of the pin first.

The red arrow points to about .005 of the front pin sticking through the housing. Notice the sear spring has been put in place.

Takes much less time to do it than tell about it!

Gently turn the action so you can look through that front pin hole again and align the shiny sear with the holes and tap the pin home. Check to see if the sear spring is still there. I have extras. BE SURE the sear is free to move on its pivot pin.

NOW, be sure the safety is ON and the gun is on it's left side. Start the long pin with thetapered end first from the RIGHT side. Tap it in so just a few thousandths of the pin noseis in the slot.

Assure the position if the sear spring one more time. Pull the trigger housing inward towards the action which will force the sear upward but let it go. Align the housing withthe pin and tap it just far enough to hold the housing on one side. Pull the sear downward against its spring and push it down into the housing so it's beneath the pin hole. Tap the pin in to hold the sear down.

Carefully tap the pin through the other side of the housing and stop with the tapered nose sticking out into the bolt stop spring socket.

Be sure the front pin is driven in so it does NOT interfere with the bolt stop. Just past flush is correct.

Put the bolt stop in the slot with the tail under the linkage and roughly line up the hole with the pin, now push the spring down and around the nose of the pin while you realize you can't reach the hammer. Welcome to gunsmithing. You'll learn through one or moretries where the hammer has to be and how you have to contort yourself far enough to tapthe end of the pin without hitting the safety lever so that the tapered end of the pin eventually gets through the spring and then into the bolt stop hole. Take a breath.

There are many gunsmiths that install the rear pin backwards because it is easier to comein through the bolt stop, then the spring, receiver, trigger housing left side, across the sear and through the other using the tapered end leading. Suit yourself, but here's the critical part and the test to be SURE the trigger is installed right. I personally install the stripped trigger and then put the safety and bolt stop linkage on. There are many ways to skin that cat.

NOW, the trigger is attached to the action. Will it work? There are two ways of finding out. The first way is to go through a drill that I could write down and most would be forgotten. I'd rather go at systematically and explain why each step is important for a safe, reliable and 'good' trigger.

The trigger has had no adjusting done but there are test to do. The first is of the sear. Using a punch or whatever is handy, press down on the sear while pulling the trigger. Don't just jam and hope, really feel the motion of the sear within the housing and especially at the very top when it first moves. It CAN NOT hang up there. Commonly, the sear hangs up when the rear pin is driven through with the housing slightly out of line. That can deform the housing enough to make the sear, which has to be free to pivotas friction free as possible, stick. If the sear hangs up, it causes the chill-inducing Fire on Bolt Open that CNBC has used in every program of the cops on the Maine range having miss-fires then discharges when the bolt handle is touched. There are ways a factory new trigger can do that, but most of the time it's gunsmithing done wrong. Be SURE the sear is free to move up and down with the trigger pulled (bolt still out, of course.).

Look through the inspection hole in the left side with the bolt out of the gun. There should be a space between the trigger (bottom) and sear (top). Pull the trigger several times to feel the spring. Turn the bottom front screw in and out to get about two pounds of just spring pressure when the trigger is pulled without the bolt in the gun.

Adjust the over-travel screw with the bolt in the gun. If you have a fired case to catch the firing pin and want to use it, put it in now. I've dry fired one action here at least 800 times in test without the firing pin breaking....but it's WAY over due!

Dry fire the gun and keep the trigger pulled all the way back. Look through the port to see how much gap between the sear which is down and the trigger which is forward. Youwant about a .010 gap between the two. Adjust the top front screw to get that gap.

This over-travel is a little too much. Experiment.

Ok, try it. Try the trigger pull half dozen times but really feel closely. You'll feel the 'grit' of the first couple of firings of the sharp edge of the new trigger being de-burred. The trigger will get noticeably 'better' in very few pulls. What if it isn't good enough? What then? Then, it's time to do some more adjusting.

Did you try the safety? This one wouldn't work after being shortened. The long leg of the sear stuck out so far it wouldn't go in the slot to apply the safety. I gently squeezed the safety about 20% closed several times in the vise to better align the legs then ground a long bevel to help guide it.

The safety no longer hangs up on the receiver slot.

The trigger shown here was a factory mistake in several places and one was in the sear adjustment screw. That is the screw in the back of the housing that pushes the trigger forward which is the same as 'pre-pulling' the trigger so that the engagement with the sear is less. Too little sear engagement is dangerous. How much is 'too little' depends on more things than we can cover here, but it's safe to say a repaired trigger with .015 engagement is suitable for the metallurgy and the use. Remington has used .010 sear engagement on two piece sears! How much is .010 to .015 and how do we know? All answered in due time.

When you remove the seal from the sear engagements screw your legal standing

changes somewhat. Some gunsmiths go pale at the very thought and want nothing to do with changing that critical dimension. I've never subscribed to that paradigm. I repair guns and if it takes sawing the action in half and welding it back together (which is one sure way to void the guarantee), so be it. Remington at one time gave these same instructions in the owner's manual. The adjustments are now the same as any other over-ride trigger.

Pick the glue off the sear engagement screw head and prepare to dry fire.The sear engagement screw on most Walker triggers is 40 threads per inch pitch, just like a micrometer. Each full turn is .025” or twenty-five thousandths of an inch. Half turn is .0125. Turn the sear engagement screw slowly until the gun 'fires'. Stop right there and mark one end of the slot and where it lines up on the housing. Open the bolt, back off on the screw a FULL turn and do the same thing again until it fires. Did the marks line up? Exactly? Do it again until you know exactly where the sear break point is. Back off a FULL turn and then stop '30 minutes short' of that mark. You've taken the 'slop' out of the threads by backing way off and coming to a point always from the same (loaded) direction. The actual sear engagement is now between .012 and .015” andthat is known to be enough.

Over-ride triggers are a balancing act between perfect and perfectly dangerous. You see the steel that holding back the rifle from firing and too short a sear engagement reminds me of somebody getting too close to a crumbling cliff. I know just enough metallurgy to scare me when we're balancing concrete blocks on razor blades.

The best trigger pulls come with small sear engagements but heavy return spring pressure. Remington was nice enough to supply a very good trigger return spring, its short and stout and will supply plenty of return strength. Experiment with combinations of more and less spring and more and less sear engagement, always keeping about that half turn of engagement. Less engagement could cause accelerated wear of the active surfaces and is of course less secure. Sear engagements of less than .0125 is 'target' territory. (I have one that's worn out two barrels with .008 engagement. Your mileage may vary. I'm not claiming it's a 'hunting' trigger. It is a 'target' trigger.)

Things to try to improve a pull that isn't right even though the adjustments seem right include backing out the over-travel screw another quarter turn. The trigger pull seems lighter if there's a little more than 'minimum' over-travel. All these adjustments are donewith the stock off the gun and the trigger pull will seem heavier than when the rifle is assembled. Keep that in mind.

Test include closing the bolt as hard and fast as you can....which is not too fast without the stock on it. Test it bare and again after putting it together. Even one failure screams loudly there's not enough sear engagement!

Once the over-travel is set, the trigger pull is adjusted with the spring and the sear engagement only. DON'T alter any surfaces by stoning, polishing, honing or buffing. That just rounds the flat surfaces which DOES reduce friction, but it also greatly alters security.

Test the safety lever with the stock off. You can see through the inspection hole until the safety blocks the back side. You can't see the most important dimension without a strong light. Look at the gap between the trigger and the sear created by applying the safety. Slowlymove the trigger to be SURE the trigger doesn't drag or catch on the sear while the safety is engaged. Check it in the 'null' position when the steel ball balances on the edge between holes in the right trigger housing plate. Some triggers will balance there. Whichway does it fall if you jar the rifle? To Safe or to Fire. It shouldn't perch. We shouldn't have to worry about it falling either way.

When the repairing is done and the adjusting is over there are several ways to assure some gremlin doesn't mess with it. Remington used Duco Cement for decades, but the first models were staked in place. To stake adjustment screws simply sharpen a center punch REALLY sharp, step out from the end of the adjustment screw slot(s) about ..010”and make a peck mark that flows into the end of the screw slot. The screws can still be adjusted or removed but it's harder to turn them and it's clear they've been turned since staking. Staking is a security measure mechanically and legally.

Details make a difference. It is rare you see a Remington Model 700 that's bedded correctly. Not only that, but miss-mated parts make bedding very difficult. This particular rifle is one of them. I'm only going to cover the trigger area, the barrel channel, recoil shoulder and magazine box are also a wreck, but I have to quit somewhere.

The trigger mounting pins are too long both front and rear. They extend out past the sides of the receiver. Why not just stick a piece of pea gravel in it!? I didn't say anythingwhile it was handy to grind them off because I didn't have good pictures of what was wrong.The front pin has to have clearance between it and the bolt stop. The bolt stop just barely works when it's perfect and the least amount of drag makes it hang up and some hear the siren call of WD-40 and that is a mistake. SO, don't let the front pin drag on thebolt stop, but it shouldn't hang out the other end, either. Carefully grind it off or be surethere's a hole in the inletting for it (them) to fit in. You can usually see a clear imprint ofthe pin ends in the gorilla snot stock finish.

The back pin needs that bullet end for assembly, so grind the other end if it needs it, otherwise it's pretty easy to give it some room on the bolt stop side. That is normally where hard contact can be seen and the rifle shoots wonderful after getting that rock out

if its hind pocket.

Lubrication should have been discussed earlier, but anybody working on gun innards should know to work with oily hands and wipe or brush all parts with any light machine oil, just enough to make oil free parts change colors. I use mostly ATF (auto tranny fluid) because the corner store has it. When I say “lightly oil” I mean the same amount of oil applied to a shot glass won't ruin good whiskey. The safety detent ball got a dab ofgrease and the rear face of the sear should have some too. Put a toothpick smear of grease on the cocking ramp of the bolt and the same on the rear of both locking lugs. Used the left-overs of that one toothpick dab of grease on the extractor cam at the top front of the bolt handle, right on the wear spot you see after about 20 rounds.

Put the rifle together and test the trigger again in every test you can devise. At the end ofeach test, carefully pull the trigger to try to detect any changes. Ten to twenty sincere test of the trigger's security should give you the confidence to call it a 'safe' trigger. Howmany lives might depend on it?

Mine are marked with a notch on the tip of the trigger and all three screws are staked.

If you want less than three pounds of crisp trigger, please consider an aftermarket trigger, preferably of a multi-lever design that are made for very light target pulls. MikeWalker testified his trigger was a 'target' trigger and made primarily for 'target' shooters. That means the bolt is only closed in a safe direction....which isn't 'up' or 'down' but is 'into the butts' on a rifle range. The precision necessary to make a truly light trigger cannot be guaranteed in any Walker trigger. I understand there is now a multi-lever Timney on the market to satisfy the 'too light for comfort' crowd. It's better to buy new than trust the old sometimes.

© H. J. (Jack) Belk 2016