Thanks for the guidance.

I just checked the movement of the front locking bolt and it seems to move OK without feeling that it's gummed up or restricted in any way, besides the obvious push back from the spring.

On the cylinder assembly, I'll play my old guy card here and say that I'm not completely clear on understanding the guidance about which way to turn the cylinder.

There's this:

"Modern ejector rods (with a line or groove next to the knurled end) are left-hand threads which means you need to turn it clockwise to loosen it, while holding the cylinder stationary, when viewed from the knurled end of the ejector rod.

From that same point of view you'd need to turn the cylinder counter-clockwise, while holding the ejector rod stationary, to loosen the two items." I understand this to be saying that if I'm looking at the assembly from the ejector rod end, I'd turn the ejector rod clockwise to loosen it, and from that same view, I'd turn the cylinder counter clockwise

And there's this:

"Clockwise, viewed from the back." Whether I twist the ejector rod or the cylinder, I *think* both folks are saying the same thing, given the firs guy's talking about looking at the assembly from the ejector rod end and the second guy's talking about looking at the assembly from the other perspective, the extractor end - am I understanding that correctly?

Also, I think I read about a change in which way to turn the components to disassemble them based on how old the gun is - S&W tells me my gun was made in 1980 - so is the information above accurate for my gun?

Two pictures via Google Drive links:

IMG_2971.jpg - Google Drive

IMG_2970.jpg - Google Drive