How interchangeable are Uberti gun parts?

[His lordship.]

How consistent are Uberti cap and ball revolver parts?  Would barrel, cylinders, etc. swap out ok between the same model like the 1860 Army?  How about a five year old 1851 Navy, to a current 1861 Navy?  Are the parts hand made/fitted, or is the manufacture generic these days?

I might use my older 1851 navy as a parts gun, and get the newer 1861 navy.  I used to have an EMF Remington 1858 Army and bought a spare cylinder from Cabelas several years ago, had to carefully draw file the cylinder to get it to fit the frame dimensions of my EMF gun.
 
Thanks

[Rex in OTZ]

I had a pawl spring break on my late 1980's era EMF 1860 (Armi San Marco). In 2004 I orderd a Uberti 1851 Colt part from the very back of the Brownells catalog the Uberti part fit better than the original, with both parts out side by side the Uberti had better finnish, the 'ASM' part had tool marks and general over all rough apperance (probibly why it broke due to stress risers from the poorly finished part).

[Fingers McGee]

I've had to do very little fitting on Uberti or Pietta replacement parts - Hammer/trigger/hand/bolt/cylinder/loading lever.  While some parts just dropped right in and worked, the replacement hands needed the most work. 

YMMV

FM

[Flint]

I found Uberti cap & call cylinders a drop-in fit in both Uberti and Colt 1st, 2nd and 3rd gen Navies and Armies.  Swapping barrels can involve fitting the arbor to the barrel sometimes.  Often the outside contour dimensions will differ at the bottom of the barrel lug at the frame, but that's not a critical thing.  The same dimensional differences for width, etc will occur with the triggerguard and backstrap at the frame, but the screw pattern is always right on.

Fitting a Pietta barrel can be a more difficult situation to an Uberti, as the geometry will differ at the two-pin locaters at the bottom of the frame, as well as the overall dimensions of the barrel itself.

An 1861 Uberti barrel will not fit a 1st gen Colt Navy, I found, but as said, the cylinder is a drop-in.  Internal parts including the hammer, (drop-in) trigger (drop-in) and hand or bolt (fittable) are good from Uberti to Colt 1,2 and 3 gen.

Uberti gripframe screw heads are smaller than Colt, (M5 against about .212) and the thread is M4x.70 is slightly smaller than the Col's #8-36, but awful close, Colt tight in an Uberti and Uberti a bit loose in an original Colt C&B or SAA.

You can put a Navy cylinder and barrel on a 60 Army and fire it.  The only difference showing is the rebate cut in the frame.  Because of the rebate cut, the opposite is not true.  Navy 1851 and 1861 barrels are interchangable.

As an aside, Uberti Russian grip panels mounted right up to my original S&W Russian.