My Colt is Broken

[simonkenton]

I have an 1860 army, Pietta.
The little block that comes up from the receiver to hold the cylinder still has stuck up. This is causing the cylinder to be scored.
I removed the cylinder. If I push down just a little on this little block, while cocking the gun, I can feel the mechanism "catch", and it will recede into the receiver as it should.
Let the hammer down, cock it again, it will fail to drop down. You have to push on it just a little each time, then it will work.
What is wrong with my gun? Sounds like failure of another Pietta spring.

[mec]

It should be up with the hammer forward, drop down at half cock and then spring back up at full cock.  If the bolt sticks down when the hammer is at half cock and you push down on it, it is probably the top arm of the trigger/bolt spring.  If not, it may be the the "ear" at the back of the bolt is not bearing correctly on the hammer cam. (see disassembly sticky.}

[1860]

Simon,

If you are lucky, it might just be a spent cap fragment that has found it's way into the the cylinder bolt cam follower area.  From your description it sounds like the bolt/trigger spring is OK but they break often.  The bolt may be cracked or the cam loose on the hammer.  Take it apart, they are pretty simple machines and the offending part will probably be obvious once you have it out...

60