[alamo]

I'm going take my grandfather's old Luger apart this weekend and give it a good cleaning. Found some disassembly instructions/pictures at lugerforum.com Are these the best available or are there any other good ones (with pictures)?

Any tips or things to look out for? I've taken an M-1 Garand and a Walther P-1 down to most every little part but wanted to know if there were any tricky parts or some steps best not attempted unless you really know what the heck you're doing.

 

[taudelt]

I would tell you the info from the Lugerforum is pretty good and is about as detailed as I have seen. The only advice I would give you is that the firing pin spring is stronger than it looks so go easy there. When removing the LEFT HAND grip be careful when lifting it out as there is a tendency to break off the upper right hand corner by the safety lever. Just ease it out from the lower left hand side and you should be ok. Take the right hand side grip off first so you can kind of gently tap out the L/H side.

 

[alamo]

Thanks for the info. I've spent my share of time on the floor looking for springs/parts that flew out of the pistol.

 

[Edward Tinker]

So have the rest of us....

I find that you only need to take the top down, all the frame things, I clean as they are on the gun, grips excepted.

Ed

 

[alamo]

I'll see how it goes. I may try to take everything apart for the challenge and also to make sure there's no rust anywhere & give it a good lubing with CLP for future rust prevention. Might be quite awhile before I do it again.

Hopefully, I won't have any parts left over when I'm done.

 

[Edward Tinker]

DON'T take the mainspring out.... It is a bear to put back in and I don't see a reason to do it, unless replacing it.

Ed

 

[alamo]

Ahh.. Thanks. I was hoping to get a tip like that. Probably saved me a lot of aggravation. Not a part I would think I'd need to take out to look for rust anyway.

 

[Pete E.]

Hi Tom,

After you turn down the take-down lever and remove the trigger side plate, I typically will turn the gun upside down (grip strap pointing straight up in the air) before sliding the receiver off the frame. This helps the s-link coupling of the receiver fall free of the frame. I do the same when putting the receiver back on the frame...holding the assemblhy upside down...

Also...check out this web site :

http://www.marstar.ca/AssemblyLugerPistol.htm

 

[lugerlou]

Alamo

One more thing of interest is if the pins are tight in the toggle assembly you should not take this apart, especially the two toggle links and the breechblock seperation only if need be.

The toggle links are held together with a vertical pin locking a horizontal pin which should always stay together unless broke.
The short pin that holds the breechblock to the toggle links is a tight fit and will loosen with frequent removal.

Generally the firing pin holder, spring and firing pin is the only parts needed to be disassembled from the toggle assesembly, for cleaning, relaxe the toggle untill you can just get a proper fitting screwdriver on the slot and turn 90 degrees for removal.

This will aid in removal of the firing pin and spring.

 

[alamo]

Good tips and info., thank you.

 

[alamo]

Doing OK so far on disassembly. Per Lugerlou, I did not take the pins out of the breech lock and toggle links. (well, I made a half-hearted attempt but they didn't budge).

I have taken everything part except the recoil lever, mainspring and mainspring guide.

It needed a good cleaning. I know it has only one cleaning in the past 60 years and I did it after shooting it 12+ years ago and I didn't totally disassemble it, just a basic field strip. It is just a few years short of 100 years old.

Lots of black sludge under the extracor and light rust/sludge in nooks in the frame, behind the ejector, trigger bar and the various holes for parts/pins.

I did not have a hold open latch as expected and don't seem to have a magazine catch? Is this right?

I'm on a roll and am considering taking out the mainspring to clean around there. Recoil lever pin wouldn't come out but I put CLP around the pins to soak in & loosen it.

Somebody stop me before I try it! Is it really that hard to get back together??

 

[Ron Wood]

STOP!!! You should not be trying to remove the recoil lever pin if you haven't removed the mainspring and mainspring guide as these place the recoil lever under tension and if you try to remove the pin, you are going to bend it.

Secondly, the extractor is marked GELADEN, not the firing pin (GELADEN means "loaded" and the marking is exposed when there is a round in the chamber).

If you don't have a magazine catch, how does the magazine stay in?
The magazine catch is that round button right behind the trigger.

 

[alamo]

Ahh, I do have a magazine catch. Don't know what I was thinking. I was looking at the parts diagram and didn't recognize that as a magazine catch till now. Looked like something different. Must be the terminology that confused me - I would call the magazine catch a magazine release button.

Confused about the mainspring/recoil lever pin. I'm using the lugerforum.com disassembly instructions. Step #37 is to remove the recoil lever pin, #38 is remove the recoil lever, #39 & 40 is remove the mainspring / mainspring guide. It looks like the lever is under a lot of tension so I imagine it would go flying once the pin was removed.

Are the instructions wrong? How would you remove the mainspring & mainspring guide without first removing the recoil lever/pin?

 

[Ron Wood]

In the same place on the Lugerforum you found the parts diagram, go to the General Information section and look at "How to install a Luger mainspring by THOR"...removal is the reverse of that process.

Those disassembly instructions are really screwy in a couple of places, such as hitting the rear of the frame with a screwdriver handle to remove the safety catch, HOGWASH!, and if you look at step 35 there is no caption on it but it appears that the "instructor" is prying the hook of the mainspring guide off of the recoil lever, not a good idea unless you want to bugger up both pieces. The proper way is to compress the mainspring using a drift punch per the mainspring installation instructions, then you can free the recoil lever from the mainspring guide hook without prying. Then you can remove thye recoil lever pin and lever.

I really would like to see a picture of that firing pin. I have never seen one marked GELADEN, and it makes no sense. You can't see the firing pin when the gun is loaded so why mark it?

 

[alamo]

Thanks for that info. That step about hitting it with a screwdriver had me baffled too.

Well, the firing pin doesn't say GELADEN after all. I'm an idiot. I was so certain I didn't bother to check last night. Serves me right for posting late at night. I guess after looking at so many new parts, I somehow got in my head it was the firing pin. The design of the firing pin assembly is interesting, never seen anything like it.

I removed references to my error in previous postings so I don't confuse anyone else. Sorry about that.

 

[alamo]

Printed off the mainspring installation instuctions. I think I'll give it a go when I've got some time to work with. I used to be afraid to disassemble pistols since I'm not very mechanically oriented but I've learned to enjoy the challange. Thanks for your help Ron.

 

[Pete E.]

Alamo,

There are several GunBoard members that live in texas...as I saw in your profile you do too.

You might want to list the general area of Texas in which you live, post it and ask for an assist, and see if a member lives near by. I have found most Luger nuts are willing to help another with their first takedowns.

 

[alamo]

Good suggestion. Hopefully I won't need help but may

I'm in with both feet now. I was perusing the spring/guide rod reinstallation instructions that Ron suggested. I thought I'd see just how strong that spring was and inserted a punch to test it. Without a lot of effort the hook end of the guide rod came off the recoil lever so I thought I'd go whole hog.

Glad I did. My purpose in all this was to give it a complete cleaning & lube so it will be protected against rust and if I didn't clean there, I'd always wonder if there was a spot I couldn't see that was eating away at it.

Getting the spring & guide rod out was fairly easy. Cleaned everything real good and used Thor's assembly instruction. I got to the part where the hook of the guide rod is over the spring. I inserted the hook end into the frame but that's as far as I got.

The punch I had been using is short and it's just not long enough for me to grip the other end to compress the spring and get the guide rod end into the frame. Looks like I'll have to finish another day when I get a better tool.

I think I've used close to 200 Q-Tips cleaning nooks & crannies of various parts, particularly the frame. This pistol will be clean and well lubed when I'm done. Thanks for all the help. Will report back when I get the next steps done.

How about magazine disassembly? I looked at it for a little bit but didn't see right off how to take out the spring and follower.

 

[Edward Tinker]

You have to be careful, you can do more damage than good by taking the gun or magazine apart. For most people, getting the mag apart is then obvious later, as it is tricky to get it back together and most of the time, it looks like it was taken apart...

I took the recoil spring and guide out last year for the first time, replaced it with a new spring, it was a bear to put back in, but I did it with needle nose pliers, a screwdriver, a few choice words, and wearing eye protection.

 

[alamo]

While I'm enjoying the process, I'm sure as heck not going to take that spring out again. I figure this cleaing and lube will be good for a long, long time.