1866 -1876 Lever and Carrier Adjustment|General Discussions & Questions|Forum|Winchester Collector

1873man said
The only one that has the set screw is the main spring. The others is just the screw that holds it in and I have never found one loose. What happens to the carrier spring is the end of the spring wears out and the lever spring wear out as well as the cam on the lever.

Bob  

So Winchester is wrong?  What I stated came directly from the catalog except for my initial sentence and the last sentence.  Winchester calls them set screws. The screws should not be loose because they are putting pressure against the springs.  I can’t argue about what wears out.   A lot of people think these screws should be all the way in, but this isn’t the case unless everything is worn out or over tightened.

1873man said
If that is what Winchester stated they are wrong. The only spring that has a set screw or tension screw is the main spring. It is just ahead of the spring retaining screw. The other two spring just have one screw that holds the spring in. Someone on here said its was written that they left the screw a little loose and tightened them up when you needed to increase the spring tension.

Bob  

This is a direct quote from a Winchester document dated 1871.  Anyone that has the 12 Volume set can look this up in Vol I in the second document.

 “There are three springs that may lose their tension by long use, viz: the “main spring,” the spring that holds up the finger lever, called the “finger lever spring,” and the spring that holds up the carrier level block, called the “carrier level spring.” Each of these has a set screw, the heads of which are outside on the under side of the frame; by turning these up the tension can be increased to the necessary strength or stiffness“.

If Winchester says these are set screws and that they are for adjusting the tension that is what I would call them and how I would use them.  Old wives tales sometimes die hard.

1873man said
I don’t know what to say. The catalog contradicts itself. In the 1871 catalog the parts lists does not list any set screws. It lists the main spring set screw as the strain screw and the carrier lever spring screw and the finger lever spring screw. No mention of a set screw

Bob  

I’ll have to go back and look at the whole thing again, but I’m sure you are right.  When I posted this topic months ago we started out talking about the function of whatever one chooses to call these screws.  I had never heard the term set screw before. There are many out there that can solve carrier alignment and lever droop problems with the better understanding on how the adjustments can be made. That was my intention.

Bob, I didn’t go back that far.  I stumbled across this statement in the 1871 catalog while looking for something else.  This would have been for a Henry or a 66.  I believe the adjustments are the same for the Henry through the 76. I was taught that these 2 screws were for adjusting but had no written proof until now.  Most of us will not use our guns enough to wear out our parts but I still loosen the screws and readjust as necessary when I get a new gun for my collection. If the screws are all the way tightened and you have a problem you may have to change parts. There is no good reason to have excessive pressure on any spring.