Smith & Wesson Model 52 no dash triger troubles

I need some help or a real good push in the right direction. I own a Smith & Wesson Model 52 no dash that I really like and it is broken. When I pull the trigger the hammer will drop about 3 to 4 time out of 5. So far I removed the slide and grips and cleaned it with Gun Scrubber spray. I have only owned it about 3 years it worked perfect until about a week ago. I have not changed any thing since I got it. I wound love to know the history of this gun under the left grip engraved into the frame it has "William Clark Saginaw Mich."

Try holding your thumb in between the hammer and slide and pressing the trigger until it breaks. How much over travel do you notice in the trigger? If it’s none or not much at all, this could be one reason why sometimes it doesn’t fall. Just not enough over travel to reliable get out of the way of the hammer. The screw can be adjusted to correct.

Tim:
    When I hold the gun up so I can see the light shine in between the trigger and the over travel screw it looks like the trigger continues to travel about .01 after the hammer drops.

If your 52-no-dash is like my 52-2, there are some magazine disconnect parts under the rear sight.  If you remove the rear sight, which is easy, be careful not to lose the spring and plunger under the sight.  On my gun, the plunger was worn out, so the parts weren't working properly.  That should be easy to check IF your gun uses the same magazine disconnect system.

Mike,
    It just so happens I just removed the rear sight to mount a reflex red dot, the plunger did not look like it was new, my guess it was born in 1963. I will be looking for a replacement plunger and spring.
It would be nice if there was a Jerry Kuhnhausen manual on the 52

My plunger was all torn up which led to my own problems.  I purchased a few of them, from Numrich.  Order one from Numrich, and if they don't have any, send me your address and I'll mail you one.

While it's apart though, remove the spring and what's left of the plunger, and see if that fixes your problem.  Without the spring and plunger, the gun will work perfectly, but it will be able to fire even if you don't have a magazine in the gun.

For help with your Model 52, go to the S&W forum, and post a thread asking Donq52 to reply.  He used to build the Model 52 guns, and he knows just about everything about them - and there lots of other people there who are very experienced at it as well.  They all are eager to help.

One other thing to check. A totally unmodified  no dash has a selector to switch between SA and DA. Make sure it is all the way on SA.

LenV,
    I have seen old magazine articles that talked about single or double action but I don't know anything other than it was selectable.

It's not really a selector (that is, there's no switch like a safety switch), it's the alien head screw that sits inside the frame under the trigger. By turning the screw counter-clockwise you reduce the amount of trigger pre-travel to the point where it goes all the way back with very short pre-travel left and effectively becomes SA-only trigger.
Oddly enough, my 52-2 also has this screw, even though it's SA-only.

javaduke,
      Thank you for your reply. So far I have looked over the plunger under the rear sight, and backed out the set screw you have referenced about an 1/8 turn this may have fixed it, I will be testing it out in about 1 hour. I will order a new plunger and spring and some other springs.

Suggestion - why put a plunger back in?   Just leave it out, and forget about it.

Unless you're a cop, worried that a thug might pull the gun from your hands (in which case he would push the magazine release and the gun would no longer be able to fire), what purpose does it serve?  For me, it's one less thing to worry about.