Hello El Supremo,
I wish to thank you publicly for all your help and guidance with my newly acquired Spencer carbine.
To fellow forum members, I had a near catastrophe with my carbine. Here's the story. El Supremo had warned me to make sure the stock was secure with no wiggle before shooting my carbine, or else the stock would be damaged. My stock was in fact "very very loose". El Supremo guided me through the disassembly of the carbine and how to check and correct a loose stock. Much to my surprise, after I removed the Lock and the saddle ring bar and the trigger tang, THE STOCK FELL OFF. Those 3 things were all that were keeping the stock attached to the action because the outer magazine tube had broken off at the point where it screwed into the back of the action. I had a hard time removing the tube from the stock because all the gunk and dried oil had it so stuck that I had to use a mallet to remove it. After it was removed, I cleaned the tube which allowed easy insertion back into the stock. Next I soaked the broken end of the tube, that was still in the action, with penetrating oil. About an hour later I used a tapered spade-bit wood drill that I wedged into the broken tube, to remove it.
As you can see in the top picture, the nut at the end of the tube was "full on" the tube. It was frozen in place. I clamped the tube in the jaws of my lathe's 3-jaw chuck and with some heat and a 18" wrench I was able remove the nut. I then cleaned and lapped the threads with fine valve grinding compound on both ends of the tube. (using the nut) The tube had full 3/4 inches of thread at one end (the nut end) but only had 1/8 inches of thread left on the broken end. (the 1/8 inch had 2 threads left)
Next I cleaned and de-greased the remaining 1/8 inches of threads on the broken end, and cleaned and de-greased the lock nut threads. I then used red loc-tite and "torqued" the nut onto the 2 remaining threads on the broken end of the tube with an 18" wrench. Next I greased the outer tube, and the 3/4" of threads, and inserted it into the stock and screwed it into the action "finger tight". Then I attached the lock, the trigger assembly, and the saddle ring bar. I then clamped the rifle stock vertical into a padded woodworking vise, and "super-torqued" the tube into the action with an 18" wrench. I finally checked for clearance of the screws that passed under the tube, and used a 1/8" dia round file to provide clearance where necessary.
I was very lucky that this repair worked as well as it did. The tube threaded into the action to within a bit less than 1/16" from bottoming fully into the action. The stock is now absolutely solid and ready for firing.
thanks again to El Supremo for his guidance allowing me to perform this task. It only took me 3 hours from start to finish.
PICTURES ....
the top 2 picture show the tube after removal and cleaning.
the 3rd picture shows the broken end still in the action. the tube had broken flush with the back of the action. the rust on the edge of the broken end shows this was a break from long ago.
the 4th picture shows the broken end of the tube.
the 5th picture shows the "reversed" tube with the nut permanently attached to the broken end.