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Posted By: Calgary Bill Barrel Selector on Winchester M21 - 02/11/19 05:50 PM
The barrel selector on my M21 isn't working properly.
Question is: how to dis-assemble the selector. Only thing I can think of is to take a wooden dowel and drive the selector out of the trigger. Think there is a small coil spring that holds the "button" in place---the spring can be purchased from Galazan---BUT I have to somehow get it apart?
Any suggestions?
Bill
I have an older M21- with the single trigger- I seldom if ever switch the button to change the firing order, but before I tried to drive out that button with a dowel, I'd try some spray aerosol "de-gunking" cleaner- or even some Hoppe's- might just be crud--

I'm the third party owner of mine, my late father bought it, slightly used, in 1948- gave it to me in 1980. Standard grade 12- 28" barrels, ejectors, good luck with the trigger project.
Posted By: SKB Re: Barrel Selector on Winchester M21 - 02/11/19 08:30 PM
I work on those things rarely but if memory serves, you need to pull the trigger group and lift the tail of the coil spring up and out of the slot it sits in, then the selector falls right out.
Posted By: Kutter Re: Barrel Selector on Winchester M21 - 02/11/19 10:25 PM
You can't remove the trigger itself from the trigger plate & group untill the selector is out.

Remove what you can of the timing weight, spring & plunger & safety parts,

Then on the right side of the trigger itself notice there is a
torsion spring imbedded and staked into a slot in the trigger itself. (Factory calls it the 'shift lever spring' I think)

One arm of that torsion spring leads down into the top of the trigger and onto the selector button (again factory name is the 'shift button' IIRC)

Straddling the selector button down inside the trigger is the selector lever or 'shift lever. It sits on a rebated section of the selector button right in the center.
So as the button is pushed side to side,,the selector lever also moves side to side.
There is a sharp peak on the selector lever that the arm of the torsion spring 'snaps' over going L and R.

That end of the torsion spring has to be lifted up and clear of the cavity in the top of the trigger and simply layed over to the side of the trigger itself.
DO NOT attempt to remove the torsion spring from it's staked inlet in the trigger body unless it is damaged and absolutely needs replacement.

With that spring arm up, out and laid over to the side to take tension off of the selector lever,,the selector lever itself can simply be lifted out.
Then the selector button will push out of the trigger to either side.

With the trigger pivot pin removed, the trigger itself can be removed from the trigger plate.
There's a trigger spring and plunger that will be released when you remove the trigger from the plate, so watch for that too.


The best tool I've found to reach in there and pull the torsion spring arm up and out is a very small dia jewelers screwdriver that I took the tiny blade and simply bent it over to form a little hook on it.
I think I just placed it in my vise and tapped it with my engrv hammer a few times to curl it over,,did the trick.
Works perfectly.

When reassembling, put everything back in place and then just lift that torsion spring arm back up with your 'hook' and gently place it back down in the trigger.

..One thing on M21's that have a very hard selector button push is sometimes the arm of that torsion spring is just a few .000 too long.
It's doing it's job as far as making the selector snap L & R. But the arm being a bit too long, it is being scraped on the back wall of the cavity itself in it's movement and causing a hard selector button push.
Lots of stuff to take a part to get at it and a small adj to make it good again.
But single triggers are like that.
Thanks Kutter. If I ever had reason to field-strip the trigger on my older M21- I'll follow your suggestions. Sounds to me like you have a machine shop background, with a solid understanding of how gun mechanisms function. RWTF
Posted By: Calgary Bill Re: Barrel Selector on Winchester M21 - 02/11/19 11:38 PM
Originally Posted By: Kutter
You can't remove the trigger itself from the trigger plate & group untill the selector is out.

Remove what you can of the timing weight, spring & plunger & safety parts,

Then on the right side of the trigger itself notice there is a
torsion spring imbedded and staked into a slot in the trigger itself. (Factory calls it the 'shift lever spring' I think)

One arm of that torsion spring leads down into the top of the trigger and onto the selector button (again factory name is the 'shift button' IIRC)

Straddling the selector button down inside the trigger is the selector lever or 'shift lever. It sits on a rebated section of the selector button right in the center.
So as the button is pushed side to side,,the selector lever also moves side to side.
There is a sharp peak on the selector lever that the arm of the torsion spring 'snaps' over going L and R.

That end of the torsion spring has to be lifted up and clear of the cavity in the top of the trigger and simply layed over to the side of the trigger itself.
DO NOT attempt to remove the torsion spring from it's staked inlet in the trigger body unless it is damaged and absolutely needs replacement.

With that spring arm up, out and laid over to the side to take tension off of the selector lever,,the selector lever itself can simply be lifted out.
Then the selector button will push out of the trigger to either side.

With the trigger pivot pin removed, the trigger itself can be removed from the trigger plate.
There's a trigger spring and plunger that will be released when you remove the trigger from the plate, so watch for that too.


The best tool I've found to reach in there and pull the torsion spring arm up and out is a very small dia jewelers screwdriver that I took the tiny blade and simply bent it over to form a little hook on it.
I think I just placed it in my vise and tapped it with my engrv hammer a few times to curl it over,,did the trick.
Works perfectly.

When reassembling, put everything back in place and then just lift that torsion spring arm back up with your 'hook' and gently place it back down in the trigger.

..One thing on M21's that have a very hard selector button push is sometimes the arm of that torsion spring is just a few .000 too long.
It's doing it's job as far as making the selector snap L & R. But the arm being a bit too long, it is being scraped on the back wall of the cavity itself in it's movement and causing a hard selector button push.
Lots of stuff to take a part to get at it and a small adj to make it good again.
But single triggers are like that.

WOW!!! Many thanks. I somehow knew that driving the selector out with a dowel was not a good idea---just a desperate idea.
Many thanks.
Bill
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