End shake

J

Jerry11826

New member
What does the term "end shake" mean.

I sent my Colt Officers model to Cylinder and Slide to get it repaired. That was February of 2009. It would not index, i.e. the cylinder would not revolve. Got a telephone call from them in January of 2010, and they told me the basic problem had been repaired. The hand was found to be worn out and had been welded and recut. The cylinder would now revolve and the "timing" was perfect. They also told me my pistol had excessive "end shake" that should be corrected.

Had no idea what they were talking about. Was ashamed to tell them I had no idea of what they were talking about. I told them if it was necessary to get the pistol to shoot correctly, go ahead and do the work.

What did I buy? What is end shake?

Thanks,

Jerry
 
Jerry, I BELIEVE they are referring to the front to back movement of the cylinder. Sorry I have no idea how this is repaired.
Best of luck.
 
Since no one else has yet addressed this, I'll give it a go.
The end shake probably refers to the position of the cylinder in the frame and the clearances for and aft.
Reducing it can be as simple as using shims or as complicated as machining and refitting the barrel.
You'll find out when you get the bill.
:eek:
It's worth correcting with a quality and valuable gun like a Colt.
 
End shake refers to fore-aft cylinder movement. A couple of thoughts about it: First, it's rare to have a revolver with no fore-aft movement at all. Second, I do not know what "excessive" end shake is. My revolvers, with a couple of exceptions all show at least a little bit of it. None of my revolvers appear to perform any less efficiently as a consequence of it. And, my revolver showing the greatest amount of end shake -- my Smith & Wesson Model 27-3 -- actually is among my most accurate handguns.

I've been told that the repair for end shake is usually simply to add some shims to reduce the fore-aft movement.

Here's how to check for end shake. Manually cock the hammer (obviously, with no ammunition in the gun!!!). Then, slowly lower the hammer as you pull the trigger to the rear. With the trigger back and the hammer lowered, see how much fore-aft play there is in the cylinder. I'd say an 1/8 of an inch or less is "normal."

Interestingly, you may find that the amount of fore-aft play varies depending on which chamber is lined up with the barrel. I have one gun, a Smith & Wesson 625, that locks up absolutely tightly on 5 out of 6 chambers, showing no end shake at all. But, on the 6th chamber, there's about 1/16 of an inch of fore-aft play. Go figure.
 
End shake correction depends on the brand.
S&W revolvers can be repaired by several methods, the easiest is to use special hardened stainless steel washers installed inside the cylinder.

Colt's are unfortunately another matter.
In the Colt's washers can't be used, and will usually destroy the cylinder if tried.
The factory correction is to use a special hydraulic tool that "pinches" the collar on the front of the cylinder to stretch it.
You can recognize a Colt that's had this repair by the reduced section on the front of the cylinder collar.
This repair is a one time-only repair. After stretching once, any attempt to stretch again usually cracks the collar.
If a Colt needs another end shake repair, Colt will only replace the cylinder, if one is available.

Since Colt is about the only place that ever had this special tool, Colt's should be sent in for repair.
 
If end shake is too severe the front of the cylinder will rub on the rear of the barrel [ forcing cone]. Then you end up with too much head space [ to large of a gap between the rear of the cylinder and the recoil shield]. This can cause misfires. Those folks working on your gun are very capable, so if you can afford the repair i wouldn't worry. I hope that all works out for you, and I trust that you now have more knowlege. Best, Lyle
 
Thank everyboby - Now I know - guess I will have to make my old Colt revolvers safe queens now. Don't need anymore large repair bills now.

Thanks again,

Jerry
 
Comment on endshake posts here

I realize this is an old thread, but for the benefit of future readers I'd like to point out that stevieboy's suggestion that 1/8 of an inch or less is "normal" is WAY off base. Most sources cite 0.0010" to 0.0015" as the desired endshake for a S&W revolver; 1/8" is 0.125", for comparison.
 
Well it's a 2010 thread but with the problems of getting good work done on old Colt revolvers Jerry11826 might still be waiting for them to finish it up. :D
 
In all mechanisms, any part that moves has to have some play; if there is no play, the part can't move. So all revolver cylinders have some "end shake". At best it will be imperceptible, at worst enough to allow the cylinder to move enough to batter the frame. With a quality revolver, a lot of firing will be needed to create excessive endshake. But if the basic problem is actual stretching of the frame, there really is no correction. Shimming or whatever will stop endshake and reduce excess headspace by keeping the cylinder to the rear up against the recoil shield, but will increase the barrel cylinder gap which may cause additional problems like excessive blast and noise.

Most revolver owners will never have to worry about end shake. But some old revolvers, mostly trade-ins used on police ranges, were fired tens of thousands of rounds and are simply worn out. Correcting end-shake is like aligning the front end on a car with 200k over country roads - it might reduce tire wear, but it really won't help much.

Jim
 
Acceptable end shake is between 0 to 0.002".

If you ever found one that tight it would not fire or if it did fire hot twice .
 
Jerry Kuhnhausen, a widely held expert on handguns, says endshake should be as close to .000" as possible. He further states that barrel to cylinder gap should be .006" for jacketed bullets and .008" for lead bullets.
 
Yap Keybear,
You are confusing end shake with bbl/cyl gap.

But I will say, the open top revolvers I set up, receive a barrel/cylinder clearance of .002" with my service. Since there is no bushing to hold back the cylinder from contact with the barrel, the cylinder kisses the end of the barrel each time the action is cycled. This allows no build up on the cylinder (self cleaning!) and very líttle fouling escapes to bind the cylinder.
My Dragoons and '60 Army are converted to shoot .45 C and have a .0015 clearance.

Mike
www.goonsgunworks.com
Follow me on Instagram @ goonsgunworks

PS, Texagun, he didn't tell Magnum Research. That's where I pulled a lot of my specs from.
 
Does Colt "engineer in" wear so they have to be fixed more often? (Is that your question??)
Someone from "inside" would have answer that one. Lol

Think it's related to setup and type/ number of rounds fired. "A race care won't last as long as a "grocery getter" " kind of thing.


Mike
www.goonsgunworks.com
Follow me on Instagram @ goonsgunworks
 
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