No32 Mk3 Turret "Un-seize/Repair"

Ever since i have had this rifle, ( 1945 BSA No4T) the No32 Mk3 has always had "seized" turrets.
Until recently it never really bothered me, but i decided i would like to have them operational again.

I set about dis-mantling the turret assemblies.

All went very well, i now see why if they are seized, and you try and force them what the results would be!!!! Severe "Breakage"

Mine were stuck fast, you can see from the attached pics... the main drum was seized into the cap housing and the clicker plate was rusted to the body.

Everyting was cleaned and lubed and re-assembled..... Now works beautifully!!!

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https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...70e230a0-1.jpg

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Great photos. Thank you for the post.

Cheers

Paul

Nicely done!! I too pulled two or three of mine apart a couple of years ago. Pretty scary until you successfully pull one apart and put it back together. For any internal work I would be sending mine on to have them professionally done, but the turret "unfreezing" is a rewarding do it yourself project.

Great pictures!!

The only problem, and I know that other repairers are sitting rolling their eyes skywards and nodding in full agreement with me, is that actually taking the drum assembly off the turret housing is a doddle. A bit less of a doddle is taking it apart - for reasons I won't go into BUT in the last year, I have been asked to rectify two. One was 'sort-of' repairable in that it was cleaned up, put back together and it worked while the other was totally butchered by a ham-fisted pillock who had destroyed the inner multiple threaded shaft.

Added a bit later....... and there's the clown who strip threaded two of the three fine threaded holes that retain the clicker plate to the inner shaft...... I mean..., just HOW do you do that?

Then there's the putting it together which can be a bit of a challenge coupled with the centring of the drum scale. Oh yes....., I almost forgot....... Putting it back onto the turret housing. MUST be as simplke as falling off a log eh? Think again. Set the lead screw and nut up incorrectly and you can jamb-up the diaphragm. Only now it's a complete strip down.

Then there are those absolute clowns who take off ......... Oh don't get me going.

I'm all for owners doing things for themselves but 99% just don't know when they're getting out of their depth and when they do............, unbelieveably, they plough on!

Arrrrrrrrrrrgh.................. JUST had a request from someone who has tried to strip a jammed solid Mk3 drum.............. Why o' why does it fall to me to rectify the situation......... Inner shaft jammed solid so pillock tries to press it out first UPWARDS, but being jammed, it's tight and won't move (but it will by carefully using a vice press!), so he tries pressing it DOWNWARDS when it STILL ain't going to go............ But what it DOES most successfully does is bend and buckle the main index plate..............

Is anyone out there really listening..............? God, is there no help for the widows son?

I have the same problem with amateur watch molesters..... I mean people trying to fix their own watches. Please don't.

Hey Gary, maybe you could show us a couple of 'how NOT to do it' pics! Make sure that they're from the top of the range watches though. Some 'got-at' balance springs are always good for a laugh!

Until I started getting some IBM Selectrics into working order for our museum, I had not really come across the effect of twenty year old grease before - it sticks, literally, like glue.

And the dried grease and mastic being dealt with in the No.32 scope is 70 years old!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Peter Laidler

Arrrrrrrrrrrgh.................. JUST had a request from someone who has tried to strip a jammed solid Mk3 drum.............. Why o' why does it fall to me to rectify the situation......... Inner shaft jammed solid so pillock tries to press it out first UPWARDS, but being jammed, it's tight and won't move (but it will by carefully using a vice press!), so he tries pressing it DOWNWARDS when it STILL ain't going to go............ But what it DOES most successfully does is bend and buckle the main index plate..............

Is anyone out there really listening..............? God, is there no help for the widows son?

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I believe that they are listening Peter.....that's likely why you got the 'request' for assisstance from someone in the first instance. And, IMHO it's a good thing that most are listening. For the few 'do it yourselfers' who eventually run amuck, you have probably saved hundreds of others of which you are not even aware. Should be a Medal for that !
Thank you.