So I'm at the range shooting my old 686 no-dash (M), and after the second cylinder of ammo I suddenly can't close the cylinder. I figure one of three things; high primer on a cartridge, junk under the ejector star, or the ejector rod is loose. Wrong on all three counts.
The cylinder still wouldn't close after I had dumped the ammo out of it, so ammo wasn't the problem.
It looked like the ejector star was hanging up on the recoil shield, so I cleaned thoroughly under the ejector star and made sure it was sitting flush with the surface of the cylinder, and still had the problem, so that didn't seem to be the issue.
When I got home I checked the ejector rod and it was tight, and I re-cleaned under the ejector star, but the cylinder still wouldn't close.
I wound up detail stripping the cylinder assembly, thinking that maybe the end-shake bearing had come apart, but it looks good as new and all of the components of the cylinder assembly looked fine. I cleaned the cylinder and yoke around the gas-ring area, no unusual build up. I put the gun back together and the problem has disappeared.
Any ideas on what else might have caused this problem? I'm kind of leaning toward a piece of crud getting stuck somewhere in the works that fell out when I took the cylinder assembly apart.

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Gremlins......................................:-)










Nah...I think your guess is likely correct.

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Run Fast, Bite Hard!

I'm by no means a gunsmith, but I had a similar problem on a 681 I owned.
After removing the cylinder assembly like you did and putting it back together it was smooth as ever. The only thing I could attribute it too was the screw holding my cylinder and crane in had worked itself loose, which was causing it to slide forward and not close.
Like I said, I'm no gunsmith so forgive my possibly incorrect terminology, I just figured this wasn't an uncommon problem.

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27-2, 66-1, 640 Pro, 10-5

Well, if you have had his revolver for a while and the problem came on all of a sudden and went away after disassembly and cleaning, I would say you had a piece of powder, lead, crud or cleaning brush bristle in the works. All it takes is one little bristle or a small piece of crud.

Chief38

That's kind of what I figured, but wanted to make sure I had my bases covered as this is a home defense gun. Glad it choked at the range instead of when I needed it. I did get a chuckle out of the "gremlins" response though

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