I recently aquired a new AYA no.1 at auction. The gun was listed as "unfired" and literally had the original factory grease in the joint areas.
None of my guns remain "unfired" for long, and so of course I could not wait to take it out on some clays.
This gun was out of someone's collection, and sat in the factory case from 1981!
I cleaned up all the exterior grease (action/barrel areas) but the auto-safety is giving grief between shots. I went to pull the locks off, and clean out the factory grease from the interior mechanisms, and what a chore! That 30 year old grease was dried hard and gummy. Even the locks were hard to remove.
My problem;
I struggle to replace the sidelock assembly on most sidelock guns, but this one is really giving me fits. I am paranoid about scratching or denting the wood around the lock area, and certainly dont want to risk damaging the lock by forcing it back into place.
Is there a trick to replacing the lock in it's seat that i am overlooking? The narrow grooved tip of the lock that slides in is a given, but I am supposed to hold the triggers or safety in a particular manner to make it slip into place better? is there something about the ejector lever that needs done?
I have had a few sidelocks in the past, and usually struggle until something just pops into place, but I dont want to damage or dent anything on this one.
What am I missing?

If memory serves, it's been a long time. The hammers MUST be cocked. Use rubber bands to hold the triggers forward. Or, push the triggers forward and put the safe in the (on) position. One lock will have a thread in it for the retaining screw to screw into. That lock traditionally comes out first and goes back on last. The front end of each lock has a lip that is engaged into the front of the receiver first. Make sure the mortise in the receiver for that lip is clean and free of debris. Then engage the lip and press the lock in with your thumb. Gentle tapping with a screw driver handle should seat it. If it wont go in - - - - - - - - - - - - SOMETHING IS PROBABLY WRONG ! Govern yourself accordingly.

Like Rod said most SL's have to be cocked and some you have to raise what you called the ejector lever at the knuckle.

Thanks guys! Did all as suggested, and the triggers definitely had to be pulled forward, but I think it was finally the ejector lever at about half mast that was the answer.

And yes, what I have been referring to as the ejector lever, should actually be called the "cocking" lever.

Happy it turned out for you. I had a sidelock Garbi at one time. It required the locks to be cocked. Other than that, it was quite easy to put back together. Nothing quite as handy as a gun with hand detachable sidelocks.

quote:

Originally posted by lawndart:
Happy it turned out for you. I had a sidelock Garbi at one time. It required the locks to be cocked. Other than that, it was quite easy to put back together. Nothing quite as handy as a gun with hand detachable sidelocks.

Cool photo!

Is that you in the F16?

Unfortunately no. That is an active duty pogue from Spangdahlem Air Force Base. For a while, it was a mixed F-4/F-16 Wild Weasel (The most dangerous job in tactical aviation) unit. They took that picture right before the F-4s went away. I should get my "Watch this guys!" photograph digitized from its Kodachrome format. I flew an F-4 down the Mosel river. There is a castle on an island in the river. I was a little bit too low, I suppose. No one ratted me out, and the picture turned out well. My "Shine my ass" picture in an F-16 was of me flying up a Norwegian Fjord at 100 feet, well below the electrical cable that were strung from one side to the other. The picture looks crappy because of the low clouds, and patches of fog. I was leading an eight ship strike package. We all popped up from the Fjord, two by two up into the bright sunshine and did simulated bombing runs on the largest Air Force base in southern Norway. We caught them at lunch time. None of us was illuminated by either search, or tracking radar. Our video film was interpreted as 80% destruction of the facility. I got a personal call of noise complaint by the Norwegian Air Force Chief of Staff; quite an honor!

I didn't fly over, or even near, Norway for the rest of the deployment. On the weekends, I limited my wife shopping expeditions to Denmark and Sweden. Fortunately I didn't find a suitable candidate. They were quite good looking, but also very socialistic in their outlook. It would just have led to an overly fractious household. Flying very low is a lot of fun, but not the best ideas I ever had. You can only tie the record for low flight, and only once at that. I'll try to dig out some pictures from that time when my hair was dark, I was skinny, and no jet was fast enough, or nimble enough, for my tastes.

Here is a picture taken during a deployment to Hawaii:

I'm sure the Japanese tourists would have appreciated it greatly
You can see the difference between Jungle and European camouflage in the two F-4s. All these F-4s no longer exist. They have been destroyed as drones.