Blair is right. There should have been (and they were often lost) a little captive washer that had a lip that wold go inside the hole on the snares to space them a little.

Nice drum, great score.

Had to put 3 washers on each end for mine.

so the washers go between the wires and the bar? I tried this but now the wires don't engage properly. I suspect this is due to the original wires being stretched over time. I may have to bite the bullet and import some puresound ones.

Andrew beautiful job! I struggled with the same setup. Until one day I was looking at the Slingerland strainer section here. It showed a 5.5 with the clamshell handle rotated downward 180* to engage the snares. You can see the witness marks on your throw side body from this. You'll need to loosen the tension on both sides quite a bit. But it'll release the snares completely. Some say this is not correct yet I see many clamshells with the same witness marks on the body. And it's worked very well with mine. Have a look in the guide here. I also made new springs for inside the strainer with less pressure. Works nice and does to stress things as much. Clamshells are just stamped brass and do bend easy.

Yes I also used little plastic washers to level my snare wires. They go between the bar and snare wires. There were little spacers used from the factory to align and space the wires. But many got lost.

Andrew, here's a few pics of the original spacers. Not mine or my pics but member makurtz. I just saved the pics as it's a good reference point. Was thinking of using a brake tubing flare tool to make something like them. Someday! Also when I used the plastic washers for spacers I left some wiggle room for the wire body to twist side to side slightly. Not real tight so they can't move. This seemed to help sensitivity somewhat. Level them the best you can.

http://www.vintagedrumguide.com/drcjw/article_5_strainers_clam_shell-5.html

Here's the clamshell strainer pages from here. The last page the shows the 1961 version with the handle down and engaged. You'll see what I mean. Take a look.

Thanks Glenn, that's really helpful. I had seen photos showing the arm rotated 180 and also noticed the marks on the housing but the arm won't go down that far. Then I noticed there are extra washers where the arm joins the pivot which shouldn't be there. So I'll pull it apart and have a fiddle. It has one washer/spacer that looks similar to the one above but the other side just has regular washers and a replacement screw. I'll take some photos when I have it apart. You'll notice how wobbly the old wires look.

That's cool you still have 1 spacer! I had the same issue with multiple handle washers. I used 1 small one that allowed the handle to rotate nicely 180*. Something Lynn S (Slingerlynn) told me was he put a small washer on the inside of the bodys where the springs rest. This can help reduce the wear of the brass inside. On mine I actually cut a small piece of thick felt (like bass drum felt strip) and that with the thin washer to cushion the spring a bit. I made it the size of the inside top body section and poked a hole through it. Yep play around with it a bit to see what works the best. Everything has quite a bit of adjustment. You'll get real good and putting them back together!

Great! More good ideas. I'll definitely give those a go, too. Thanks