39A mfg 1985 pre crossbolt safety carrier pin issue

39A action without pin, lever open

Sometime in September I think my rock solid, highly accurate, much loved and used by many Marlin 39A jammed.  This is a gun that simply never jams, never fails to eject, always feeds slow or fast just plain stopped working.  Range triage discovered the problem was beyond a Leatherman and the gun was bagged and that was that.  Image to the right is the action open with no pin in the carrier.  When the lever is cycled, the carrier does not raise as it should.

Carrier removed, looking front (left) side of carrier and pin/spring

Over the New Years, John and I embarked upon a more detailed diagnosis in hope of finding the right part to order and install on some cold winter day.  After looking high and low for the missing parts that were no longer in the gun. It occurred to me that I had kept the tiny bits in my tiny bits pellet tin where all such small parts go.  Happily they were there less the "washer" which was missing from the start.  Image to the right is the small pin which is .121" in diameter.  I cannot locate my feeler gauge to get the thickness of the groove where the washer is captured.  The more I look at the photos it would seem the real question is, what is the original "minor" diameter of the pin.  It does look to be held in place by peening the back of the pin.

Pin, pushed through hole in carrier showing back side with missing "washer" to hold pin in place while spring pushes the pin to project out on front/left side of carrier.

The issue is, as those who own 39s know, they made ever so slight manufacturing changes as they mass produced this longest running production gun.  My SN starts with a 15 which means 100-15=85 or 1985 production.  So it is a late model, non alpha type made just before the cross bolt safety.  Inspection of 1950 era guns, the carrier is a completely different design.  And although you can find images of carriers with this "spring loaded" carrier pin on MidwayUSA, comments by those who bought them say they don't work in pre cross bolt safety guns.  Numrich says they don't have "style 1" of this carrier with no comment as to what that means.

So, to image to the left, the "back" of the carrier, how do I get a small enough washer or circlip to hold the pin in place?  You can click on the photo for a full sized image.

 The image to the left shows, as best I can hold and photograph, what the pin would look like when it is held in place with a washer.  As the lever of the gun is cycled, the entire pin gets pushed flush letting the lever completely open after the carrier is raised to its highest position to guide the bullet to the chamber.

Now the question is, how to fix it.  I have got to believe someone has had this issue and developed a good solution.

 To the right is the "front" of the carrier with the pin held flush, not pushed in.

I would be interested in what the washer looks like on similar guns of this mfg period.  If you ever decide to clean your gun, I would appreciate it if you could take a picture of your carrier, back side mostly, to see if that stimulates any ideas as to how I can fix my 39A.