I just bought a Smith 66-5 and have been looking it over for problems and wear. The gun looks very good all over except for one small spot of scratching. Now I will try to explain from a rookie's perspective where it is...sorry don't know all the terms yet. When the cylinder is all the way out or open it has hit the frame looks like only 3-4 times very small and not deep at all looks almost like compound could take them out. Is this bad? The other thing is that when the cylinders is open and i grab it very slite forward and backward slack not very much at all? What do you think? I had a gun shop look the gun over after I bought it and they said the gun was in great shape? Any comments would be helpful

Welcome to the forum!

The forward and back motion is normal. It is the way it should be when the cylinder is in the swung open position. The small marks where the crane hits the frame when the cylinder is swung open is also normal. Sounds like you bought a nice gun. Enjoy it.

Yes it sounds normal. Perhaps you could post pictures and then people could comment further.

I have inspected my S&W revolvers for play in the cylinder yoke assembly. I jiggle slightly in all directions, also applying a bit of twisting. Some are tighter than others, but it seems normal to have play there - sometimes enough to allow the cylinder to contact the frame.

Don't worry and enjoy it. Also welcome to the forum, you'll find helpful and knowledgeable folks here.

Thanks for the feed back. I think I found a good gun for $399 I have been cleaning it up with some polish and it is really coming back to life! It was nice to have a good experience with this gun. I had problems with a new Taurus 45/410 I had 3 bad guns in a row. I had a Smith as a kid and thought that 410 shotgun stuff look like a good idea...but you can really feel the difference in a Smith.

In case you don't know this, the only thing that holds the cylinder in place on the yoke when the crane/cylinder is swung open, is the little stub that sticks out of the frame at the lower rear edge of the cylinder window on the left side.

If you want to clean the gun, take out the front sideplate screw on the right side, and slowly and carefully slide the entire crane/cylinder assembly out to the front. The cylinder will then slide right off of the yoke barrel for cleaning. After cleaning, lightly lube the yoke barrel, and slide the cylinder back onto the yoke. Then slide the entire assembly back into the frame to re-install. You may have to slide the cylinder part way off the yoke barrel to get the crane started into the frame, then just slide it all home, and re-install the sideplate screw.

Congrats on your S&W.
If you remove the sideplate screws, don't mix them up, there are two that look the same but will be different lengths. Install the wrong one and your yoke will either be too tight or too loose. 2 flat screws, one slightly domed screw. Oops, I meant one flat head screw and two slightly domed ones.

__________________
Lynnie, Professional Pest

And only to add to what Joni_Lynn said.
The most forward of the screws in the side plate, is the one that retains the yoke/cylinder assembly in to the frame.
Congratulations on what arguably can be considered a core gun to any collection of "actually gonna' get shot" guns! She's more accurate than 95%-99% of shooters that own one. And she'll challenge your abilities no matter how good they may be.
Can you tell I'm a fan?

(EDIT)
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=0...l/K_Frame_66_5

Wow...thanks for the info! Not sure I'm ready for a take down yet. I will with some of this info try to decide when. I had the grips off last night cleaning and some lite hand buffing. I also took the thumppeice off to clean around it. Thanks for the link spotteddog that helped. Gun 4 Fun...I think I will try that!

Well...your forward side plate screw on your 66-5 has a spring loaded plunger in it. The screw is larger than the other two and will only fit the front hole. The two screws behind it will probably both be round head, it makes no difference which one goes in which of the two rear most holes however us old timers don't mix them just from force of habit. I have seen one case of a -5 with a flat head in the rear most hole and that one I kept in the rear hole just for appearance sake. The Pre -4 66's had two forward screws which appeared the same, sometimes they were and sometimes they weren't: don't mix. The rear screw was a flat head meant to go in the rear hole.