Awhile back someone posted about this problem. A local gunsmith knew what was wrong with my .303 E. After I told him it developed the problem after being taken down and cleaned. Sure enough, the tiny spring that fits in the slide was missing.He heated a small peice of flat spring steel and bent it into a nearly flat S. Then filed and honed it to fit the hole in the slide and acheive the desired amount of friction to hold it in position, yet slide fairly easy.He said the little peice is easily lost when taken apart, and does not look like a spring or any other gunpart.

Hmm.. I've got an old one with a very loose safety. Might have to check that out.

Thanks for sharing..

Rory,

All you've got to do is take out that little "S" shaped spring that he's talking about and spread it a bit. That should increase the friction and tighten up the slop in your safety. Just make sure that when you spread it that you don't set it up so that the ends of the spring dig into the surrounding metal.

This is the Lever Lock Tension Spring? It was used with all of the lever locks (safety) from 90,000 to 1,000,000 and the E's over 1,000,000?

I thought it was a small coil spring (I don't take them apart very often and don't remember)? Anyone with a photo of actual and replacement.

Is this something to put in the Sticky section?

If it's for later, than it's not mine.. mine is a pre-90,000 with very sloppy safety.

Yes, that would be it. It's not a coil spring but rather an "S" shaped spring that fits in the square hole in the lever lock safety. It is simply an "S" shaped piece of sheet metal with enough temper to provide enough tension to keep the lever lock from rattling and free falling in and out of position. You may want to provide a sticky to the effect that it's an easily overlooked and lost item when doing a complete disassembly of the 99.

Calhoun,

If yours is below 90,000 then all you need to do is remove the lever lock safety and spread the split a bit more. The earlier safety doesn't have a spring but rather is split and spread to provide the required tension.

Rory,

The pre 90,000 safety is split and it is spread open for the resistance. You might even be able to spread it with a small screwsdriver. I think that I have both types in my parts bins. I will try to get pictures up tonight.

Blair

Rory,

Here is the pre 90,000 safety. Sometimes you can get enough pressure on it to open it slightly without taking the rifle apart. But spreading the end is what creates the resistance on this style.






Here is the post 90,000 safety. The s shaped spring is what creates the resistance to prevent it from flopping back and forth.






Blair

Thanks for the pics. Thats good stuff, even I can understand how it works.

Very good! Thank you guys!

Abd I think this is another addition to the sticky at the top.

It was my post about the safety & it is the earlier split type. Still haven't addressed it yet but then again I haven't had much time to even think about my own guns lately.

I condensed it and moved it to the Misc. Good Info section. Great photo's!

I learned something and that's what this site is all about. Thanks guys!

I took the early E .303 to the range, and the safe worked like new. Before, no matter how sure you had moved it to the off position half the time your hand grip would move it just enough to lock the trigger. I would hate to see someone have that happen when pulling down on that trophy buck!