Help reassembling Ruger MKiii

I'll try this. Could the magazine not be engaging the disconnect? The magazine seems to be firmly seated and "clicking" into place, but pulling the trigger doesn't (seem) to do anything - it travels all the way back, but there is no click. Without the magazine seated, the trigger feels different and won't go all the way back.

Anything is possible! The fact that the trigger pulls without clicking seems to indicate the sear hasn't engaged the hammer. I seem to recall one instance in my many attempts where I neglected to lift the sear to capture it under tension under the safety lever. The hammer was floppy. I think I recall being able to get it together but not firing.

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If you look in the mag well you will probably see the strut hanging there. You should be able to move it while pulling the trigger. The hammer needs to be forward to remove the main spring.
I've done that before--ended up with the strut in the wrong cavity.

If this is the case, as Chet said, you can manually manipulate the hammer forward from the magwell.
 
I'll try this. Could the magazine not be engaging the disconnect? The magazine seems to be firmly seated and "clicking" into place, but pulling the trigger doesn't (seem) to do anything - it travels all the way back, but there is no click. Without the magazine seated, the trigger feels different and won't go all the way back.
The hammer is reliant on the main spring to move forward when you pull the triger. If the main spring is not on the hammer strut pulling the trigger wont move the hammer on its own.
If you lave a long thin screw driver you should be able to get to the hammer and strut through the mag well and move it forward, you may also need to hold the mag disconnector out of the way. You will need to still be pulling the trigger to get the hammer to move.

Where are you located
 
The hammer is reliant on the main spring to move forward when you pull the triger. If the main spring is not on the hammer strut pulling the trigger wont move the hammer on its own.
If you lave a long thin screw driver you should be able to get to the hammer and strut through the mag well and move it forward, you may also need to hold the mag disconnector out of the way. You will need to still be pulling the trigger to get the hammer to move.

Where are you located

So this was really helpful. The hammer strut was not in the magwell, but I was able to use a probe to nudge things around in the magwell to get the hammer released and get the mainspring out.

What is happening now is that the hammer isn't moving all the way forward. With the bolt out of the pistol, I can easily move the hammer up and out of the way with a probe. With the bolt in, I can't seem to get the hammer to move forward, following the same steps (mag in, trigger pulled, pushing forward on hammer with probe).

Sent you my location.e
 
Is the hammer strut in the mainspring well? Is the sear installed correctly such that it is under the safety lever? is the sear being properly captured by the magazine disconnect? Is the magazine disconnect spring installed correctly such that the disconnect is under tension? Do the magazines lift the magazine disconnect? If you apply pressure with your hand on the hammer strut, does pulling the trigger cause the hammer to fall? Is the sear spring leg behind the hammer pin (this shouldn't cause what you're seeing, but it is correct assembly and easily overlooked). Is the sear spring installed correctly? Can you verify that the hammer and sear mate correctly?



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Is the hammer strut in the mainspring well? Is the sear installed correctly such that it is under the safety lever? is the sear being properly captured by the magazine disconnect? Is the magazine disconnect spring installed correctly such that the disconnect is under tension? Do the magazines lift the magazine disconnect? If you apply pressure with your hand on the hammer strut, does pulling the trigger cause the hammer to fall? Is the sear spring leg behind the hammer pin (this shouldn't cause what you're seeing, but it is correct assembly and easily overlooked). Is the sear spring installed correctly? Can you verify that the hammer and sear mate correctly?


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I never did anything more than taking the mainspring assembly and bolt out, so I assume that the sear and safety are still properly positioned. Wouldn't I need to remove the barrel to have those get messed up? When the bolt is not installed and the hammer is back, with a magazine installed if I push on the hammer and pull the trigger the hammer goes all the way forward, so the magazine disconnect seems to be working.
 
Is your barrel fully seated? Did you say that you can get the mainspring pin all the way in and folded back into the handle?

Are you sure that the hammer strut is in the recess in the mainspring?

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Is your barrel fully seated? Did you say that you can get the mainspring pin all the way in and folded back into the handle?

Are you sure that the hammer strut is in the recess in the mainspring?

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I wasn't tipping the gun the right way to let the hammer drop when I rotated the mainspring in. It is now back in and everything "clicked". Thanks a lot everyone! Now that I know the process, I think I could actually repeat it pretty quickly, but this thing is staying together for a good long while. For some reason the guides I was looking at online just didn't quite make sense to me until everything went back together the right way this last time.
 
I wasn't tipping the gun the right way to let the hammer drop when I rotated the mainspring in. It is now back in and everything "clicked". Thanks a lot everyone! Now that I know the process, I think I could actually repeat it pretty quickly, but this thing is staying together for a good long while. For some reason the guides I was looking at online just didn't quite make sense to me until everything went back together the right way this last time.

Fantastic! So glad that things fell into place. Now that you've done it, take it apart and do it again! It took me quite a bit of time experimenting and now I can completely disassemble and completely reassemble in about 10 minutes. There are a couple of waving the gun around in awkward contortion movements that you've now figured out! You might consider going to rimfiresports.com and ordering a magazine disconnect bushing for ~$10 which makes this quite a bit easier.


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I wasn't tipping the gun the right way to let the hammer drop when I rotated the mainspring in. It is now back in and everything "clicked". Thanks a lot everyone! Now that I know the process, I think I could actually repeat it pretty quickly, but this thing is staying together for a good long while. For some reason the guides I was looking at online just didn't quite make sense to me until everything went back together the right way this last time.

This sounds like a problem that could have been avoided by reading the manual [wink] [devil]

Pages 22-26 http://www.ruger.com/products/_manuals/markIII.pdf
 
Glad you got it back together. 2 things to remember, to get the bolt out the hammer needs to be back/down. To get the main spring back in the hammer needs to be released. This is what all the magazine and trigger manipulation are about. Replacing the hammer bushing with a MKII bushing eliminates half the crap by not requiring you to keep playing with the mag.
When you are putting it back together you should always feel that spring tension on the main sprig just before it is seated all the way. If not the strut is not in the spring well.
 
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This is what mine looked like tonight. Did the full volquartsen kit on it. Feels great now.
 
Also I just listed a replacement bushing in the classified which gets rid of the disconnector.

Ha, this reminds me. This past saturday I was told by a gun store clerk that this was flat out illegal in Mass as well as the LCI removal. Made me laugh and I told the guy he should be more careful with his facts. At that point he plead ignorant but it was way too late
 
A lot of people sing the praises of the majestic speed strip kit but if you know how it works, you can disassemble faster than you can unthread the majestic kit and assemble faster than you can rethread.


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The first time I took mine apart it drove me nuts trying to follow the written directions. The Ruger web site has an excellent video that I have on my phone now.
I also installed the mag disconnect bushing the last time I had it apart. Great gun but it will test your patience.
 
This is the second gun I ever took down completely. It took me a long while to put it back together. Wasn't my gun, but had borrowed it from a buddy to shoot it and didn't want to return it dirty. No way in hell I was going to call him for help. Frustrating as hell. Once I got it back together I broke it down again and then reassembled it again.

After that nightmare, every other gun I've ever disassembled was easy! An Abrams tank is probably more intuitive!

And while it shoots great, I'll never bother with buying one.

And now now that I think about it, my ruger lc9s is a quirky gun to take apart compared to most other handguns. Maybe ruger just likes to make things difficult.
 
Also I just listed a replacement bushing in the classified which gets rid of the disconnector.
Ha, this reminds me. This past saturday I was told by a gun store clerk that this was flat out illegal in Mass as well as the LCI removal. ...

Should have asked him if he had any used Mk. II's for sale;
if so, ask how he was legally able to sell them.
 
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