Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Savage Loose Lever Fix

I remember seeing a thread on how to fix a loose lever on a model 99 by closing the Arc. Is there any special consideration I have to take? Should I be supporting any other metal on the lever as will it bend. Where is the best place to hit with the mallet to close the Arc. Would anyone have a link to the original thread , I was unable to find it.

Great Thank you

Is headspace affected?

If I recollect there seems to be some controversy on how this effects head space, or something like that. It seems to me that an effective way to solve the problem would be to add some weld to the end of the lever and then refit it to the stub it bottoms out against when the lever is closed. The 99 action looks like it relies on the friction fit of the lever at that location and at the rear of the bolt when in battery to hold it all in place.

Not sure to be honest I have not shot the rifle yet , my father has it fully dis assembled.

How would it effect headspace? That is purely a function of the the length of the bolt from where it butts solidly against the receiver to its face. Jockeying the lever arc only effects how well the bolt fits in its space (and curing droop). If the bolt was too short before, it'll still be too short after the lever is tweaked. If anything it'll effect the angle of the bolt face in relation to the cartridge head, but that would be a very tiny angle.

All I know is the lever controls how high and forward the breech bolt goes, which would affect headspace.

the wear that occurs on the parts i,e, lever, bolt, and receiver will affect the headspacing on the 99 and the lever is the weakest link IMO the boss on the lever is the area that usually is the culprit. tightening the lever fit(arc) doesn't have much effect on headspacing but does make for a better lock-up.

plab

ditto

plab

The whole point in restoring the proper arc in the lever is so it will cam the bolt into its fully closed and locked position. Properly adjusted, it restores proper head space.

That makes sense to me.

And Roy has probably logged more time in working 99s than the average bear.

But it seems to me that head space has everything to do with the length of the bolt in the slot of the receiver between the barrel breech and back wall and the lever has everything to do with how the bolt goes in and out of that slot, or battery. Has anyone ever did before and after headspace measurements on a 99 where the the arch of the lever had been tightened up with the mallet method?

Yes, but if the lever pushes the bolt too far forward and it then doesn't bear firmly against the rear at the receiver, you'll get a false headspace reading. Upon discharge the bolt will be pushed back hard against the receiver to where it wants to be, and I'll bet it'll undo all the good work you've done in tweaking the bolt in fairly short order too. Not to mention giving you stretched cases (but you would have been getting them anyway since there would have been a headspace issue from the start).

Presupposing that headspace was good from the git-go, tweaking the lever arc to cure some lever droop won't effect headspace one way or another, IMO.

The opening that the bolt fits into is angled at the back so the further the bolt goes up the further forward the bolt goes. It is possible to go too high and actually pull the bolt off of the bearing surface at the back. I've experienced that when swapping parts around and experimenting with fit. Like Lightfoot says, there's a happy spot that is fully closed and in battery, no more and no less.

I still need to study that relationship some more.

Ditto

I'm shaky on this, so you guys check me, but does lever droop have to do with bearing on one side of the lever, while the breechbolt bears on the other side?

Rather than ask, I should be out there trying to see up inside the lever/bolt interface. It's hidden up in there.

this will be a long post ,
closing the arc on the lever will bring it to bear in the bottom of the receiver where it is machined at an angle( a boss) or "locking surface" that the lever bears on. thus
tightening the lever or lever drop as we all refer to. now think about this .closing the arc just brought that downward to the receiver, therefore it no longer pushes the bolt as high as when the arc was open. OK so what really happens to the 99 over time ? does the arc on the lever open up ? does the tip "bearing surface" of the lever wear ? what about the boss milled into bottom of the receiver? or the one on the lever? the slot in the bolt ? . I say all these surfaces wear over time. thus headspacing can and will be lost over time . now closing that arc really does nothing more than bringing that milled boss on the lever downward therefore the bolt no longer gets pushed as far upward. a loose lever will push the bolt higher. but it makes for a soft springy lockup in the 99. headspacing for the most part is quite forgiving but some rifles wear enough to end up with problems.