Correcting Uberti Short Arbors?

[Dickydalton]

duplicate

 

[William McCready]

I can tell you from experience of working on these pistols that the arbor not being seated can turn a Walker or a Dragoon into a paperweight in short order. I have also corrected a few belt pistols as well that were shot with heavy loads and stretched the frame, it's a lot more common on the big horse pistols. Major Kudos to Bad Karma for finally bringing this into the light!! The stretched frame issue can be fixed but it does get a little labor intensive. I have yet to see a Walker wedge fail after the arbor is corrected. I do have one in a drawer in the shop that tried to fold itself in half, has a nice half moon shape in profile. The stretched frame issue shows up as an increased barrel/cylinder gap and a loose wedge that won't tighten no matter how much it gets pounded on. I just repaired a 2nd model Dragoon that all the classic signs of being shot with full house loads. The arbor was 3/8ths of an inch short, the wedge would fall out and it had a huge barrel to cylinder gap. It's a very accurate pistol and solid as a rock now that it's properly set up and the problems fixed.

Absolutely, I've seen a few Uberti Walkers dialed in for competition that were incredibly accurate. Then at the opposite end of the spectrum, phantom short arbor issues with cylinder drag, even misaligned frame pins where the rounds weren't even hitting the target, everything. It makes me wonder how many issues are user induced by people who either don't know how to work on and set it up, to those who can barely hold the pistol firmly long enough to accurately fire it. Great comment!

Dave, Mike has been saying that all along but MDL and pals vehemently deny it and then forget they did.

 

[fireman1]

People oughta stop swinging their purses and talk about guns.

 

[Zapadach]

I can tell you from experience of working on these pistols that the arbor not being seated can turn a Walker or a Dragoon into a paperweight in short order. I have also corrected a few belt pistols as well that were shot with heavy loads and stretched the frame, it's a lot more common on the big horse pistols. Major Kudos to Bad Karma for finally bringing this into the light!! The stretched frame issue can be fixed but it does get a little labor intensive. I have yet to see a Walker wedge fail after the arbor is corrected. I do have one in a drawer in the shop that tried to fold itself in half, has a nice half moon shape in profile. The stretched frame issue shows up as an increased barrel/cylinder gap and a loose wedge that won't tighten no matter how much it gets pounded on. I just repaired a 2nd model Dragoon that all the classic signs of being shot with full house loads. The arbor was 3/8ths of an inch short, the wedge would fall out and it had a huge barrel to cylinder gap. It's a very accurate pistol and solid as a rock now that it's properly set up and the problems fixed.

Thank you for your comment. I have a third model dragoon that I have not shot very much, do too the fact that I have determined, that the arbor is too short. With this discussion, I have determined that I should fix it, however your comments have solidified my determination.

 

[hawkeye2]

This thread has degenerated to hurling childish insults at one another and seemingly to feed the egos of some members. This drags the forum to a new low and has nothing to do with the original subject nor the purpose of the Muzzleloading Forum. I am respectfully requesting a moderator to lock this thread and possibly delete some of the posts. Asking someone to simply disregard certain posts is not a solution, the posts should not be here for the membership to see. Personal disagreements like this can be done with PMs (messages) and kept from sight or by meeting in a honky tonk on a Saturday night.

 

[fireman1]

assume grown men have stones enough to stand their ground without wetting their depends ! If we dish it out we ought to be able take the incoming !

Agreed but this will get locked or deleted if people are not careful.

 

[Sorry Dude]

This is my new Uberti 1851 with the arbor fully bottomed out on the barrel. From what I have read this should be good to go, does this look correct? Did I get a unicorn?

 

[45D]

This is my new Uberti 1851 with the arbor fully bottomed out on the barrel. From what I have read this should be good to go, does this look correct? Did I get a unicorn?

View attachment 366889View attachment 366890View attachment 366891

No.
That test doesn't work.
How about driving the wedge in and see if the cylinder locks up?

Mike

 

[45D]

This thread has degenerated to hurling childish insults at one another and seemingly to feed the egos of some members. This drags the forum to a new low and has nothing to do with the original subject nor the purpose of the Muzzleloading Forum. I am respectfully requesting a moderator to lock this thread and possibly delete some of the posts. Asking someone to simply disregard certain posts is not a solution, the posts should not be here for the membership to see. Personal disagreements like this can be done with PMs (messages) and kept from sight or by meeting in a honky tonk on a Saturday night.

Let's not lock it.
I'm too busy to respond in "kind" right now.
All one really needs to do is read over the first part of this thread to see why some have responded like they have.

Mike

 

[Sorry Dude]

No.
That test doesn't work.
How about driving the wedge in and see if the cylinder locks up?

Mike

Cylinder lock up is fine, I don't have any problems other than cap jams. Just wondering if my arbor looks good or not. Any other tests that might be more effective.

 

[Sorry Dude]

Let's not lock it.
I'm too busy to respond in "kind" right now.
All one really needs to do is read over the first part of this thread to see why some have responded like they have.

Mike

I'd like to not lock it either I have legitimate questions on the subject.

 

[45D]

Cylinder lock up is fine, I don't have any problems other than cap jams. Just wondering if my arbor looks good or not. Any other tests that might be more effective.

I meant drive the wedge in as far as you can and see if THAT locks the cylinder up. I wasn't talking about the bolt locking the cylinder.

Like this. This is a new 2024 Uberti. The wedge is fully in and the cylinder is locked up (out of battery). It's an Uberti . . . the arbor is short.
One of 3 I'm working on today (Some "tuners work 7 days a week!! ).
If this was a Pietta, you'd see a brighter "contact patch" on the end of the arbor and the bottom of the arbor hole.

Mike

 

[45D]

See, the wedge in "Beauty and the Beast" is in as far as it can go

The arbor won't allow the barrel assy to move back any farther. Endshake is @ .002" .

Mike

PS no, I'm not working on B&B, I brought it back out just to take this pic.

 

[French Colonial]

Cylinder lock up is fine, I don't have any problems other than cap jams. Just wondering if my arbor looks good or not. Any other tests that might be more effective.

Just shoot it...

I have a Uberti 1851 Navy that I bought from Dixie and right out of the box it shoots round balls great, conicals not so much.
I have shot pistols in competition and the Navy shoots very well. Give your pistol a chance and you may be surprised without worrying about what others "think" you need.

 

[Sorry Dude]

See, the wedge in "Beauty and the Beast" is in as far as it can go
View attachment 366950
The arbor won't allow the barrel assy to move back any farther. Endshake is @ .002" .

Mike

PS no, I'm not working on B&B, I brought it back out just to take this pic.

So I should overdrive the wedge in as far as it will go, and I should still be able to rotate the cylinder when half c0cked?

 

[45D]

So I should overdrive the wedge in as far as it will go, and I should still be able to rotate the cylinder when half c0cked?

Yep.
If you can't rotate the cylinder, the arbor is short. That's not necessarily a "perfect" test but it's a mostly common tell tale. A less destructive test would be to drop a thin washer down the arbor hole and assemble the revolver. If you can, the arbor is short.

Mike

 

[D Yager]

On the other side of the coin some Pietta revolvers have an arbor that's a bit long. I would rather deal with one that is long rather then short.

 

[Sorry Dude]

Just shoot it...

I have a Uberti 1851 Navy that I bought from Dixie and right out of the box it shoots round balls great, conicals not so much.
I have shot pistols in competition and the Navy shoots very well. Give your pistol a chance and you may be surprised without worrying about what others "think" you need.

Pistol seems to shoot .375 balls fine, still working through cap issues. Shot some 140 gr conicals, was more for function than accuracy.

 

[Sorry Dude]

Yep.
If you can't rotate the cylinder, the arbor is short. That's not necessarily a "perfect" test but it's a mostly common tell tale. A less destructive test would be to drop a thin washer down the arbor hole and assemble the revolver. If you can, the arbor is short.

Mike

Yep, cylinder locks up. Thanks, sometimes I need a crayon drawing to get something. So it's not an issue now but will become one as parts wear?

 

[D Yager]

If it pulls caps off that fall into the innards it could stand a cap post and action shield.