Senior Newbie

[Modski66]

Having let some SAE30 soak onto the piston ring overnight, it still feels very stiff to cock compared to my Tempest, but not had chance to fire it yet.
I think the spring guide must be very dry, making the spring graunchy when it is being compressed.
When I strip it down, I am going to polish the spring guide and as much of the inside of the spring as possible. I am quite looking forward to seeing what it is like inside after 70 years, presuming no one else has had it apart!

[Troubledshooter]

Having let some SAE30 soak onto the piston ring overnight, it still feels very stiff to cock compared to my Tempest, but not had chance to fire it yet.
I think the spring guide must be very dry, making the spring graunchy when it is being compressed.
When I strip it down, I am going to polish the spring guide and as much of the inside of the spring as possible. I am quite looking forward to seeing what it is like inside after 70 years, presuming no one else has had it apart!

It sounds like someone has possibly fitted an alien spring, or the spring is in two pieces.
If there is any lubrication in the spring guide, it will be via the spring.
It's always worth a light coating of lubricant on the spring when re-assembling the pistol.
The phosphor bronze piston ring gets it's lubrication from the few drops of SAE 30 sparingly applied through the cocking slot, as marked.
I don't think I've ever chrono'd a standard Webley pistol, as I can normally tell if something isn't right from the feel of it when cocked and fired.
I'm sure you'll get there in the end.

[Modski66]

Alien springs you say, made from Unobtainium?

There is no question about getting it sorted, I am a mechanical engineer with a reputation to uphold...

[M.Meijer]

Most likely cause for a harsh trigger mechanism on early Seniors is the one-piece sear that often has an irregular internal surface on which the trigger actuates. With the change to a leaf - or rather thong - spring in 1955 the sear was changed into a two-piece item, the second part now a round steel pin offering a very smooth surface for the trigger to engage on. It made a dramatic difference in my 1948-ish Senior, coupled with a smooth resistance build up by that leaf spring. See page 84-85 in the Bruce book. Why Webley's top model pistol was equiped with such a poor design for a trigger has never been explained to my knowledge, given they had a very adequate trigger in the Mark 1. Perhaps it was a desire to come up with something 'different', like the bronze piston ring that does not impress either.

[Modski66]

The weight of the trigger was very evident last night when I was shooting the "Senior" back to back with my Tempest. The Tempest felt like a match pistol!

It was much smoother to cock, and was punching clean holes in the target. The "Senior" was tearing chunks in the card.

I now have a good benchmark to compare pre and post fettling; I would like to think I have some free time in the next couple of weeks, so I will be fitting the new thong from Knibbs and do all the other tweaks.

[Modski66]

Someone made a comment at the club the other night about how curved the trigger is. I had not really thought about it too much, but while looking at pictures of the barrel knurling length, I noticed that some models have a much straighter trigger.

I cannot see any correlation with age and trigger shape: some pre 1949 (long knurled) have the curved variant and some don't, and some post 1949 models seem equally inconsistent.

Was it just a random thing as to which trigger was fitted?