(After the internals have been cleaned and you have verified the integrity of the cylinder stop spring) Like dad used to tell me, if at first you dont succeed do what i told you. i took it all apart one last time before i gave up and shipped it off. just because i was curious i stretched the cylinder stop spring a little and reassemble everything. it is cycling perfect now and the cylinder stop does not pop up until it is supposed to. i am fixing to order two or three springs now. i can not tell you how happy i am now that i do not have to part with this old gun even for just a few weeks. thanks for the advice and replies.