I have a Pre-27 N frame. I removed the cylinder latch to Flitz the left side of the frame. When I tried to reinstall the thumb latch, I found that it's stuck. The gun still functions, but the latch won't move forward at all. There is a little rearward movement, but no forward movement that would allow me to even install the thumb piece.
The cylinder moves freely. The hammer and trigger operate normally. The cylinder release won't move forward, so I can open the cylinder. Previously, it had worked fine.
I read the earlier thread about the stuck Model 19. My cylinder isn't stuck, the latch just won't move forward to release the cylinder.
I tried spraying It with RemOil to no avail.
Any thoughts?

Shouldn't take the thumbpiece off without having the side plate off and lots of other internal stuff removed. It's like the last thing you take out and the first thing you put back. Need the hammer assembly out of the way, which you'll have to do to reassemble it properly. There's some videos out there, or you could just take it to a gun mechanic . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

The almost exact same thing happened to me with my .38 M&P Postwar (pre model 10). I got it, cleaned it, shot it, cleaned it and put in up. Six weeks later the cylinder release would not work. Everything else was fine, cylinder turned, trigger and hammer worked. So I took off the latch and no help. Then I could not get the latch back on. So I pulled the side plate and sprayed the internals with brake cleaner and ballistol. Nothing. I removed the hand but then chickened out and did not want to remove anything else. I noticed the cylinder release did not fit into the hole properly but did not want to remove anything to get to it. So I put the side plate back on after hitting the guts again with brake cleaner and ballistol.

All of that took about 10 minutes. After the side plate was back on I noticed the release had moved enough I could get the latch back on but still no cylinder release. About 20 minutes later when explaining the problem to my wife and demonstrating how the cylinder should open when I push on the latch it opened.

I guess it took that long to dissolve the gunk. I turned the revolver over to my gunsmith to have him clean and check under the side plate. Should not have that problem again.

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Mike
S&WCA #3065

Thank you for the response. Don't think I want to try and rummage around in the innards on such a nice gun. It's going to my smith

If you remember to remove the cylinder from the gun (or open it) prior to removing the thubpiece and nut, this problem won't ocurr.

When the cylinder is closed, the center pin is pushing the bolt to the rear, but only to a point designated (restricted) by the interface of the body of the thumbpiece and it's slot in the frame. When the thumbpiece is removed, the bolt can sometimes move back a bit further, from rearward pressure caused by the center pin. This can cause the pin at the front (called the pivot) of the bolt to slip back inside the frame opening and get stuck there, out of position.

As Muss has said, you must then remove the sideplate (and the cylinder assy), and re-position the bolt/pivot into the center pin hole in the frame so that it can move forward.

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Ret. LE, FA Instr, S&W Armorer