Model 66 Cylinder

[KS25-06]

I have a 4" 66-2 that the cylinder is very hard to open. Totally disassembled it, cleaned and lubed, polished the end of the ejector rod which looked a little rough. Reassembled and still very hard to open. Afraid to shorten the rod. Any suggestions?

[Big Cholla]

Yes, the ejector rod has a left handed thread. Try tightening it. Clean under the ejector star. Remove thumb button of the cylinder latch and clean inside the frame port. Remove the plunger that locks the ejector rod and polish the latching end.

[Hapworth]

Any chance someone used washers to reduce endshake and over did it?

[armorer951]

Along with the excellent advice given above, check to see that the center pin comes fully to the end of the extractor rod (or perhaps a bit past the end) when it is fully pushed in. You can check this by removing the cylinder assy from the yoke, and place it extractor side down on a flat hard surface and press down. This will move the center pin fully forward in the assembly.

If the pin is not coming fully forward inside the extractor rod, the rod can catch on the front locking bolt and cause interference. To remedy, you can shorten the tip of the extractor rod slightly, or remove the desired amount of material from the extractor rod collar. Removing the material from the collar will shorten the rod assembly's overall length without removing material from the end of the rod itself. Material can be removed from either end of the collar to shorten. (carefully rub belted side of the collar on flat surface of India stone) Extractor rod collar pictured below.

Make sure to check the rear gauge on the cylinder. Rear gauge or headspace should be .012" - .014" (recessed cyl)

[notsofast]

Originally Posted by KS25-06

I have a 4" 66-2 that the cylinder is very hard to open. Totally disassembled it, cleaned and lubed, polished the end of the ejector rod which looked a little rough. Reassembled and still very hard to open. Afraid to shorten the rod. Any suggestions?

I started a thread titled “Cylinder opens sometimes” for a nickel m13 that wouldn’t release the cylinder reliably. Don’t know how to link you to the thread but you can go to my statistics and then to threads I’ve started and then you will find that thread on my second page. Correctly shimming or spacing fixed the problem perfectly

[KS25-06]

Thanks to all for the advice. Armorer951, thanks for confirming my thoughts on shortening the ejector rod. Had not thought of making the bushing shorter. Will check the rear clearance also.

[Hondo44]

All good advice above.

But before doing anything carefully diagnose the issue. I study the operation at the front locking bolt with 5 power glasses. Watch for binding as you slowly release the cyl. Do this for each chamber to confirm it's the same in all positions of the cyl.

As a rule of thumb, leaving the center pin slightly longer than the extractor rod when pushed fully forward gives the smoothest release of the cyl.