A few weeks back, I did a thread on rebuilding a TF-97 that had a busted spring. What I did was add an old Quest spring and TH to it. But the trigger had developed a bit of 'roughness' while on loan to my father. So I'm plinking around with a Chinese made Power-Line 1K, trying to get it post tune broken in, and finally getting the trigger a tad lighter (see my earlier thread in this gate). But anyways, I decided to pick up the TF-97 and give it a couple test shots to get another feel of the trigger action. So being 'not to kean' with it's performance, I decided to dive back into it and see what we could do.
The trigger group is farely straight forward, and not complicated at all. After removing the cross pin and spring block/guide assembly (with the mainspring), Ibegan to dissassemble the linkage, bear trap devise, and the trigger components. With thebear trap removed (the BT slide, the two springs with the pin, thebear trap release with it's spring and pin, and the safety blade with its pin), Ithenremoved the trigger blade. If care is taken, the trigger blade springnever needs to be removed from the group. Next came the piston sear lever. And that's all that needs to be removed,....cause there ain't nothing else!!!!
Now to polish. Starting with the blade itself, I polished the both sides where the pivot pin holds it into the trig group housing. Since the blade is a stamped piece if steel, to give it strength, the manufacturer put an insert in it with a tiny pin to hold it in place. I removed the pin took the insert and polished the two flat surfaces in a table vise with a very fine Bas-tard file, and then some fine grainned emory paper. You'll want to take care to keep the same pitch on these surfaces so go slow and take your time. Another thing that makes the work easier with the emory paper is to wrap it around the file when giving the flat surfaces the final polishing. Some folks say these should be polished in the direction that they work in when assembled, but with a fine polishing paper, I don't think it's going tomake that much of a difference. With the trigger insert replaced back into the blade, I vise'd it again and repeated the proceedure to smooth out the edges as a singe unit.
For the piston sear lever, I used the same method with the file and emory paper. Both the trigger blade slide area, and then the sear side area. A simple task really,....but just be careful to keep the same pitch on every surface, and take your time. Keep all the edges clean, and don't 'round off' anything.A quick dressing of the sides and we're ready to re-assemble the group.
Starting with the piston sear lever, dab a bit of moly on the sear contact. Slide the lever back into the housing, making sure the spring is on top of thelever/trigger blade contact point, then slide the pin into it.Once the lever is in place, dab a bit of moly on the trigger contact area. The trigger blade goes in next!! This is the only 'tricky' part of theassembly, but it's easy really. With the trigger blade and insert/tinypin in place, make sure you place thelittletab of the blade and the hook on the spring end so when you slide the blade into the housing you'll feel a little tention. If you don't feel this tention then the spring is not in its proper position. It only works one way, so if you don't get it the first time, chances are you'll get it on the next attempt!!!! Insert the pin andyou're good to go with the rest of the trigger group. Assemble everything in the reverse order of dis-assembly.
A few tips that helped me out. I did add a bit of moly to the sides of the trigger components, and also used a little bit of molyon the pins to aid in sliding them back into the housing body. Nothing rocket science about it, Like I said, it's a pretty straight forward design.
Now would be a good time to add a little moly to the pitson latch area, and anywhereelse where you'll have metal to metal contact,...EX: the beartrap slide, the bear trap release area where the linkage engages with it, etc.
How did it turn out?!?!? With flying colors!!!! After a few shots, this triggerdoesn't even feel like the same one we took apart. Not even close!!! The trigger pull is very smooth, and 'feels' alot lighter (without the gritty/friction of an unpolished trigger group). The sear let off is nice and crisp, and almost predictable LOL's!!!!!!
For a rifle that's this accurate for the price,a simple trigger grouppolishing just makes it even better,....and well worth the effort!!!!
tjk
