Marlin 60 new vs old, FTE

jd66921 · Post by **jd66921** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 9:08 pm

Hi,

I have a Marlin 60 (actually a Western Auto 120), that I think is a 1973
model. I've had it for about 8 years, but am just trying to figure it out.

I am getting about 1/2 failure to ejects! Since the extractors seemed
weak, I replaced them. The cartridges do not seem to be ejected. The
previous round is still in the extractors. So, I bought a feed throat and a
new spring with the more modern
ejector mechanism. I cannot get the action assembly back in the gun!

This is an old rifle with the screwed in action assembly. The old feed throat
had the type with a cast in ejector. The new one seems to be too high. Can
this be used in the old assembly? I ground down the feed throat so the bolt
will almost close, but not quite. I left it like that and am asking for help!

Has anyone got any good advice? I like this old rifle and hope to get it
functional again!

Thanks,

Jeff

greener · Post by **greener** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 10:29 pm

Sounds almost as if someone has disassembled the action and installed the springs incorrectly.

Post by **Bullseye** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 6:49 am

The action of a Model 60 has lots of springs, parts, and pins, its very easy to get something turned around during reassembly. Re check your installation carefully. You've probably already been here but here's a fairly good link http://www.castbullet.com/misc/m60.htm and this thread on RFC has some good info also http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/sh ... p?t=143780 (there are a lot of pages in this thread).

Here's a great teardown M60 powerpoint download slide show http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/sh ... p?t=197703 (lots of good pictures).

There are some generational differences between the Model 60 parts, especially between the models without a bolt hold open latch and those with the latch.

Hopefully this will help with your rifle.

R,
Bullseye

jd66921 · Post by **jd66921** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 3:06 pm

Thanks for the answers here. Unfortunately, it wasn't as simple as mis-assembly...

To simplify, My original problem was a failure to eject. I replaced the
extractors and their springs. Then, because I was now getting total
failure to eject, I replaced the feed throat and the lifter spring with
more modern ones. Now the rifle would not even reassemble!

Some more study, and found that the new feed throat is of a
different design, and would not allow the lifter to move correctly.
I filed it down and got it back together. Then I found that the new feed
throat was not large enough to allow a .22 round to enter it. I filed it
down and was able to get the rifle to work, sorta.

The only problem remaining is that the bolt will not go into battery.
I can force it closed and the rifle works right, and ejects right(!) but
that is not the best solution. I need to adjust things a little to get it
to fire semi-automatically. Not sure what is wrong yet though.

Any ideas about that would be nice!

Jeff

greener · Post by **greener** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 6:51 am

It's been a few years since I had mine apart. I seem to remember that getting the orientation of the springs in the action correct wasn't exactly obvious from any exploded diagram I had. The Powerpoint link is pretty good. The other problem I remember is that the recoil spring wanted to kink on reinstallation.