I recently aquired a 29-3 with a 8 3/8 barrel in a trade. I knew the gun had timing problems at the time of acquisition. The cylinder over travels only when firing in DA. But in SA< its fine. He gave me some snap caps for it, and you can see there are firing pin strikes all over the back of the snap cap case. Meaning the firing pin isn't striking dead center like it should. I checked the cylinder stop, didnt' have much play to it, the cylinder didn't have much play either. I figured might run $100 in repairs thru my gunsmith.

Later on, I detail strip the gun for cleaning. It was pretty bad inside. I wholah! I notice the hammer stud is broken. I've read this isn't' all to uncommon, especially is shot a lot, or dry fired quite a bit. And that I most definitely would have to send it back to S&W for repair. But what I didn't read is, how does S&W repair these? I see hammer and trigger studs can be purchased individually from places like Midway. So I'm guessing its welded to the frame? I also caught someone's post about the frame has to be replaced.

That seems a little much though. Can anyone tell me what's the process S&W or a gunsmith uses to fix a broken stud?

I've had two over the years. Sent them both back to Smith, had them in about two weeks average. No frame replacement, and the last one was a Model 38 with an aluminum frame about 3 years ago. Think it cost me 75 bucks. They do great work on these.

The pins are press fitted into the frame.