Problem with cylinder not spinning freely S&W M&P 1905

T

Twmaster

New member
Recently bought a 1920's S&W 1905, 4th change in 32WCF.

When you open the cylinder it does not spin freely. The extractor rod is screwed all the way in and it's been completely cleaned and lubed. I can see some rub marks on one side of the extractor rod where it rides in the through hole on the yoke.

When I remove the extractor rod, center pin and ejector the cylinder spins very freely on the yoke.

When the cylinder is in place the end of the extractor rod will not snap into the bolt pin under the barrel. You have to push it into place.

To me this sounds like something is bent although nothing is obvious. Although I have not had time to spin the extractor in a fixture to check straightness.

My instincts are telling me the extractor rod is bent. How likely is it the yoke is bent? That could also create the binding I am seeing on the extractor rod.

Which part (or both?) should I suspect?

This gun is hard to find parts for. I'd hate to go spend silly money replacing parts that are not broke.

Thanks in advance for any help.
 
Last edited:
Best bet is to strip the cylinder, keep adding parts until the cylinder won't spin, I would venture to say it is the ejector rod, to test it, gently fit it into the chuck of a drill if possible and run on low speed, if it is vent it will show, more than likely it is towards the end, or use the straight edge of a razor blade to test for straightness , OR, the reason it is not visible is because there is no bend, assemble the ejector rod parts without the cylinder , something may fit on there crooked
 
The crane/yoke can get bent by closing the cylinder Hollywood style with a flick of the wrist. Don't ever do that. If someone has done this then that may be a possibility as well.
 
A concur that a bent extractor rod or center pin is the most likely cause of that problem. A bent arbor (the part of the crane that holds the cylinder) will be easily detectable when the open cylinder is spun.

I don't recommend the practice, but IMHO the concern about flicking the cylinder closed has been vastly overblown. I once spent the better part of a day doing that repeatedly with an M&P (pre Model 10) S&W revolver and never caused any detectable damage to the gun. (My wrist was sore for a week, though.)

Jim
 
Woohoo!

The extractor rod was bent 20 thousandths off at the end of where the rod threads into the body of the extractor. The center pin was also 20 thou off.

After carefully clamping the rod in my lathe chuck and finding the high spot with an indicator I took a soft face mallet and gently knocked the thing back into alignment. It's still about 4 thousandths off but I'm afraid of bending it too much chasing that last 4 thou....

The cylinder now spins reasonably freely. I get 6 or 7 full rotations out of a spin now and no binding with dual action trigger pulls.

It still will not always allow the bolt pin to drop in though. I'll figure that out a bit later as it's time for bed.

:D
 
'I don't recommend the practice, but IMHO the concern about flicking the cylinder closed has been vastly overblown."

It's like popping the clutch on a manual transmission car (anyone still drive those? Besides me?)

It's fun, and once isn't going to hurt things, but the effects are cumulative and don't heal themselves.
 
I drove manuals for a long time, finally got tired of rowing down the street and went to automatic. Never forgot how, though, which comes in handy when the only rentals available (especially in Europe) have stick shifts.

As to the cylinder "flicking", I don't say it can't cause problems, but I sure couldn't make it happen in not one but several hundred tries. But I had to fix a fair number of S&W and Colt revolvers with bent cranes. Not from "flicking" the cylinder, but from cops "flicking" their revolvers on the hard heads of rambunctious gentlemen to persuade them that they should accompany the nice officer without further resistance.

Jim
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top