doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Tightening a Jones underlever?

Any experiences with having a Jones underlever tightened? I'm speaking of the bolting itself. Looks pretty complicated to me, achieving good bearing surfaces on both bolts.

Its tricky! A good welder and lots of patience required. The last one I did just required attention to the lever. It was welded, anealed, smoked in, then re-hardened. Kind of a pain fitting those rotary surfaces. Ken Eversol might be just the ticket with his spray welding technique.

How loose is it ? Very or just a bit slack . That is the first thing to determine . Is the gun well on face and reasonably tight in the body? Dose the lever have any play on its spidle when the retaining pin is removed ?Are the barrels hard on the flats when the lever is closed ?
Sorry about all the questions but without this it is difficult to suggest the simplest way to remedy your problem . I don't think any one who built guns of this period thought that over a century later that anyone would still be using them so the idea of correcting for wear never crossed their minds . The Jones lever is one of the more difficult systems to repair and can be an absolute pain ,particularly if they are badly worn . Not the easiest of jobs at any time .

have never seen one loose...they are very strong and durable.

Ed , are you lucky ! Seen far to many ,worst part was I had to put them right.

Actually I don't have one with a problem. I am attracted to the Jones underlever, and have two and both of are bank vault tight. I just wanted to know what the potential pitfalls are going ahead.

Nothing like borrowing trouble from the future...

gunman makes good points. I've even seen one with the spindle snapped in half. From the stress of overloaded US cartridges combined with unfortunate case hardening characteristics.

Best advice: Don't shoot Wally World cartridges in these -- or any classic -- gun.

That way, you won't have to worry about a Jones failure.

Yeah, nothing worse than a failure of the "Jones."

My Jones problem is the underlever on my Alex Henry .450 BPE. It's an absolute bear to get it closed. Also, unl;ike the one on my Mullin, there is no quiet "click" to indicate closure.

Could this be a sign that it was repaired in a "shade-tree gunsmith" kind of way at some time?

It really takes a lot of force, both to open and close. But closing it is definitely the more strenuous. It's tough to just get it under the flats, and then an extra measure of force to push it so that it is centered.

I've always wondered if something is amiss somewhere, just waiting to snap and turn into a major headache.

Any thoughts?

yes.....look at the hook first. Any sign of welding? Dovetailing? Was a new hinge pin fit? Look at the rotary lock up on the barrels. Any sign of any work done there? The lever is another possible source of tinkering. An Alexander Henry should be smooth to operate.