Well, its apart. Dad soaked it in acetone 3 times keeping it over a floor register for heat before he came over. Wrapped it in a towel to keep it from evaporating as best he could. It began to budge. Took it to my bench and we were able to drive out the pins. Everything was sticky. Took it to my ultrasonic cleaner and with the hottest tap water I could muster and with the heat on high, best it got to was 51 C. I'm too lazy to look up the F conversion. Used Sam's brand industrial cleaner (purple gallon bottle) and she came out sparkling. I don't believe the ultrasonic cleaner and my soap would have done the job. Hitting it with acetone, keeping it wet, and getting some heat to that I believe was the key.
Shown is a gel left behind by the acetone. Obviously glue. What line of Gorilla glue he used, I don't know, but there was glue in there. Fortunately he used it judiciously just as you should when lubricating a few points in a gun and it wasn't globbed in there. I think that saved us.
Gel like substance left behind. This pic we would find out was a primary reason the barrel would not release. He had put glue in those lugs. We drove out the pins holding the trigger group together and ended up using a drift to hammer those lugs loose. Once those broke free she came right off. Glue in these lugs I believe was 99% of our problem.
The end of this spring shows some glue that did not dissolve.
All cleaned up out of the ultrasonic cleaner. There were zero adverse affects to the bluing.
Now, for another problem. I ran everything metal through the cleaner to be on the safe side. All came out looking like new. Youtube and online schematics helped us get it back together with a light coat of gun oil on everything and a few drops where things move. However, pulling the hammer back only results in a successful cocking some of the time. I can push on the lever and it will drop a cocked hammer. If I assemble the trigger to the receiver with the hammer cocked the trigger will drop the hammer, sometimes as I'm installing it, but I can't get the hammer to cock with the trigger group installed. I thought maybe the barrel needed to be installed to function, that's not it and required drifting back the lugs again to remove the barrel.
I can use a punch to manipulate things to get the hammer to cock and use a punch to drop the hammer as if the trigger were there. There is a spring that pushes 'fore end lug' up into battery in front of the hammer I deduced may be weak and stretched it just a tad. Couldn't tell if it really made a difference or not. I should also add that running things though a cocked hammer, dropped trigger and
trying to cock the hammer (won't stay back) will not open the barrel. That requires driving out pins and disassembly again to get the barrel off.
We spent 3-4 hours with it tonight between cleaning and multiple disassemblies. Walked away to sleep on it and await a brilliant revelation why such a simple mechanical device is defeating us. I'm thinking its a weak spring, scoured the scheme looking for a piece we may be missing, I'm just not getting it.
If worse comes to worse we'll pay someone smarter than ourselves to figure it out or send it to Thompson for a spa makeover.
It has a .35 Remington barrel on it, which I've never seen before. Kinda unique maybe.
I really hope no one ever needs this thread in the future, but I've honestly had fun defeating the initial problem. Maybe relieved our first attempts were successful is a more accurate way of putting it. I'm no gunsmith but I do enjoy tearing into something simple and trying to fix it. Don't send me your old Python for a make over anytime soon, but I do enjoy tinkering with the simple stuff. Made all the better doing it with my Dad.