Wife handed me my bday present an hour ago, 1873 Uberti lever gun.

EDIT - FOUND - large burr on the action spring locking up the lever.

Problems:
Lever would not open after second time I tried cycling.  If I jiggled the entire gun, it would open, but 3/4 of the time the lever would not open more than an inch.  I did not force it open, I'd jiggle the receiver NOT the lever, got it open and cycled it a ton without getting closed enough to let it lock up.  

Well now the lever cycles fine, but the trigger is REALLY loose.  Also, I may be an idiot, but when the hammer hits the firing pin I do not see the firing pin move, at all.

This is my first lever gun.  I'd much rather rip into it and learn rather than send it back.  Where do I start?  Pics/diagrams would be great.

The firing pin does not move past this point by force of the hammer.  It does by pushing on it with my finger:


Play in trigger, completely free movement:

I don't know if this will help, but there isn't a hell of a lot in there in the toggle action Winchesters.

It may have debris in it.  Spray it out with brake cleaner.  Hit it with a high pressure air nozzle, oil it, and try again.  

If that doesn't resolve it, take it back and make your dealer send it in for repair or refund.  If you have to sent it in, call Uberti for an RMA. 

Some dumbass may have dry fired it and broken the firing pin.  I think it is a two piece and I think there is a one piece replacement or a more bulletproof replacement.  Do you trust your dealer?  Did it look like it had a good finger fucking?  

There are some great gunsmiths that work on SASS guns that will unfuck it for you, but you are going to have to pay.  If you planned a short stroke kit, you may just want to contact one of those smiths and tell them what you have going on.  

Pioneer Gun Works

https://stevesgunz.com/

Took it out and it fires just fine.  Now I'm confused.

It has probably been sitting for quite a while, I picked a lever gun up the other day and could not get that thing to cycle, so I sat down and tore it apart, the shipping grease was as hard as a rock in that sucker, so after stripping it down and cleaning then lubing it, it runs like a champ, ran a little over 60 rounds through it today with no problems at all.

Probably has a rebounding hammer and a spring on the firing pin.... the hammer strikes the firing pin and bounces back allowing the firing pin to retract allowing the action to open without the firing pin dragging on the primer.

If it cycles fine now, probably had a burr somewhere that you took care of by dry cycling.

Putting some rounds through it loosened everything up cycling wise.   Trigger is still really weird, it's essentially just dangling there and will move by just tilting the gun around.

 That's just the design of the trigger. I have two 125+ year old original 1873 Winchesters and there exactly the same way, as is my  1873 Uberti. That is to say the trigger moves freely forward and backwards, not so much laterally.

Uberti describes the firing mechanism as 'inertial'.  So, the firing pin extension -- the part the hammer contacts -- doesn't have to move much to impart significant energy to the firing pin.  The pin, itself, floats inside the bolt and is retracted by a light spring.  If the gun goes boom, the system is working.

The "floppy" trigger is a characteristic of the '73 design.  It is a two piece trigger, where the part you put your finger on is separate from the actual sear.  It is normal for it to be 'loose' when at rest.  It is necessary for it to be this way in order to accommodate the lever safety, which was THE major innovation of this design in 1873.  If you want a non-floppy trigger, you'll have to remove the safety.  Good luck finding a bonafide gunsmith to do this modification for you.  Most won't, and I don't recommend it after using the gun in both configurations for many years.  An out of battery ignition on a toggle link is potentially dangerous and almost always expensive to repair.  Be happy with this 'innovation' and become one with it!

With regard to the glitchy opening of the gun, Uberti doesn't do the best finish work in the industry and relies on HEAVY springs to make a poorly fitted gun go bang -- in much the same way as does Roooooger, but even more extreme.  If you want a smooth operating Uberti, you'll have to hand the gun over to a specialized gunsmith who's trade is slicking these things up.  In the hands of one of our master, cowboy gunsmiths, the gun can be turned into a very smooth operator.  Get out your checkbook.

 For what they cost, the fit of the Uberti lever guns is great and of all their firearms I've owned, 2 ea. '66's, 2 ea. 73's, and a slew of revolvers, none of them even came close to "poorly fitted". My newest, an 1873 Carbine in .44 Magnum, is incredibly smooth.

Again, good info, thank you.

I've been digging further into it every few days to learn the ins and outs; it seems there's a lot of obvious contact areas that would benefit greatly just from being polished.

I'd be alot further along if the damn pot metal screws weren't torqued to 50ft/lbs.  I have a replacement set of screws on the way already

Found the issue that caused the original lock up.  Big bur on one of the action springs.

Getting the screws out of the action springs, specifically one, was a nightmare.  Had to drill out the center, but the head was still stuck in the hole.  The spring fell free, but the head was still stuck in the counterbore.  Wound up running a left handed tap into the remnants of the head to get it out.  It's almost like whatever coating was applied to the screw was not dry when it was installed.  

New screws will be here tomorrow.

Aside from these issues, I'm really impressed with the quality of this gun.

I have to agree.  With 2 Uberti SA pistols, a SAA in 45 Colt and SA Cav in 357 Mag, and a '66 Yellowboy carbine and a '73 Special Sporting Rifle, both in 45 Colt, my experience with them all is that they work smooth as glass.  I've added a spring kit to the pistols that made them perfect but the rifles haven't needed their actions touched at all.  No, they don't have the feel of Winchester's '92 style action nor their '94 but that's because they are copies of Winchester's earlier designs.  While I've found that Ubertis aren't quite as accurate as my Rossis (which may be as much a function of the caliber - Rossis are 357 Mag and Ubertis are 45 Colt) they are decent for the 200 yd and under shooting I do with them.