S&W M66-8 hand, mouse spring, trigger giving me fits. HELP!

**Fudmottin** · August 25th, 2018, 02:27 AM

I recently took delivery of a Smith & Wesson 66-8 Combat Magnum with the 2.75" barrel. It's pretty decent, so the first thing I had to do was mess with it. I got a Wilson trigger spring kit to install. All was going well when I made a fatal error. I pulled the hand out of the trigger. Fortunately I did not lose the mouse spring in there. Unfortunately, I can't get these thee parts back together.

The basic problem is when I get the spring in place (hopefully in the correct orientation), I can't get the hand in. It gets pushed slightly to the side so I can't get the post through the hole on the other side of the trigger.

I've tried using a 5/64th inch punch as a guide. It is the same size as the post on the hand and I can get it through both holes with the spring in place. Unfortunately. when I try to get the hand in, pushing the punch out of the way, the mouse spring still manages to get things twisted. I've even gone so far as to sacrifice some goats to Satan. No news on that front yet.

Any tricks or special tools I need?

This is an old diagram, but the parts I'm referring to coincide with 69, 71, and 72.

https://www.gunpartscorp.com/gun-man...lvers-sw/66-sw

Thanks.

**Hawk** · August 25th, 2018, 07:03 AM

Look here (at around 29 minute mark): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDs5U7vUQyQ

**marinville** · August 25th, 2018, 10:17 AM

I have had the same fight with the same gun. It IS a bitch, but you can persevere. Unfortunately it has been a while, so I dont have specific advice to offer. I recall feeling like I needed a third hand, and I may have incorporated a padded vise to hold the trigger.

For me, half the battle was figuring out how TF the spring was in there in the first place. Mine was not removed deliberately. It uninstalled itself when I was gutting the frame, (perhaps a bit too carelessly.)

In any case, I assure you it CAN be done, so keep at it. If I think of anything more specific, I will return.

Thinking about this some more: I believe I locked the trigger in a vise, used tweezers to drop the spring into place, then pushed in the hand while holding tension on the leg of the spring with a small punch.

**marinville** · August 25th, 2018, 11:13 AM

This diagram was helpful to me for figuring out the correct orientation of the spring: https://www.brownells.com/schematics...-5-sid611.aspx Reference the small box on the right that says "new style revolvers"

**Fudmottin** · August 25th, 2018, 05:24 PM

Thanks all for the help so far. I'm still struggling with this. I've noticed that there is a "window" slot on the right side of the trigger. The hand spring can be inserted in such a way that I can see a portion of the spring through this window. I'm finding the diagram in Brownells a tad confusing (perhaps I'm dyslexic). The video of the tear down and rebuild of the M29 is all well and good, but he never had the hand spring out. Dude just pops the hand in easy peazy! I wish it was that easy.

Anyway, I see one thing I was doing wrong was trying to have the loop of the spring around the pin that holds the hand onto the trigger. So that is one misunderstanding sorted. Now that I've figured there is a little hole in the trigger for the spring, I have to get the orientation right and then figure out how to get it to tension against the hand as shown in the video. Does the long bit go into the hole or the short bit? Which side should it be on?

Thanks!

**marinville** · August 25th, 2018, 06:16 PM

This is incredibly difficult to get a picture of, apologies for that. The short leg needs to go down into the trigger housing. You should see it through the window. When you insert it into the housing, the short leg should be against the left side (looking from the back of the trigger) the long leg will stick up and it will need to be held behind the smaller of the two pins on the hand as the hand is inserted. The long arm will rest against the right side of the trigger housing (the side from which you will push in the hand.)

ETA: I actually just took it apart and did it twice. Its not that hard when you have it oriented correctly and know what needs to happen.

**marinville** · August 25th, 2018, 06:28 PM

This is what needs to happen, though obviously with the spring on the inside of the trigger housing:

Eta: I am not using a vise. The hardest part is dropping the spring into the housing so that the small leg goes into the pocket. It's hard because you can't see what tf you're doing. I am using tweezers to drop it in and a punch to hold the long leg in place while the hand goes in.

**marinville** · August 25th, 2018, 06:46 PM

Here are a couple more pictures. I could not get a picture of the spring dropping into the pocket.

**Fudmottin** · August 25th, 2018, 06:55 PM

Thank you thank you thank you!!!!

I've got it in now. Now I just have to wash the sweat and tears off of the parts so that they don't rust!

A trigger spring replacement should only take about ten minutes, not ten hours. Wow. The Wilson springs are nice. I hope I don't end up with light primer strikes. I opted for the 12# return spring because I'm nowhere near as fast on the trigger as Jerry Michelic (probably butchered that).

Thanks again.

**marinville** · August 25th, 2018, 07:34 PM

No problem. Glad you got it back together.

How was your trigger from the factory? My 66-8 came with a very smooth 10lb double action pull. I'm very pleased with it. I've seen others replace the FCG and wondered if mine is an anomaly.