4006 / 4046 guide rod question

drno4 · #1 12-08-2016, 11:16 PM

Have owned a 4006 for about 18 months. Shot my first one in the police academy some 20 years ago and it's been fantastic to have one back in my hand.

To add to it, I just picked up a 4046 the other day. Love both pieces.

In disassembling and cleaning the 4046, I noticed a difference between the two guide rods; the 4046 has a "sleeve" (for lack of a better word) around the tip that protrudes out from the rod itself, whereas the 4006 does not. Also noticed the distinct "dimpling" on the 4006 guide rod, which the 4046 rod does not have.

Is the extra "sleeve" that protrudes on the 4046 simply to accommodate for the extra 3/8" or so of length in the 4046 slide, or is there also some mechanical advantage to the difference in the guide rod designs?

In the attached pictures, the 4006 is on the left; 4046 on the right. You can see the guide rod length differentiation particularly when the slides are assembled.

Thanks for any insights you might have.

BLUEDOT37 · #2 12-09-2016, 03:34 AM

The 4006 & 4046 use the same guide rod assembly, S&W PN# 106760000.

S&W, over the years, made them in several different styles of construction. IIRC, the staked-on version came with either an aluminum body or a steel body. The aluminum one is the least desirable one, IMO.

The one in your 4046, with the staked-on end, typically are the most problematic as they loosen up, but can often be tightened up with a punch & hammer.

The one in your 4006 looks like the all steel, one piece body construction that is the most durable & has the retractable plunger/spring tip (removable) that is a little longer than the other. When the slide is installed on the frame that tip won't extend out that far as the guide hole in the frame will stop it. I believe this is the later style.

AFAIK, & has been my experience, if you order a guide rod you may get any one of the three styles, depending on what they grab or is available.

.

Fastbolt · #3 12-09-2016, 02:14 PM

Revisions have been made to the guide rods over the years.

I posted some info and thoughts in a couple of previous threads. Here's one of them: Guide rods

Also, a couple years ago I got a parts order of 4506 guide rods that contained a couple where the head (collar) had been filed or ground off flat on one side. Not having seen that before, I called and asked one of the guys I knew about it. (He'd been involved when the 645 was being developed and sometimes had some interesting tidbits of info, but he's now retired.)

He told me the PC had developed a trick of flattening one "side" of the guide rod head, to help during reassembly after field-stripping. He guessed that some guide rods for the discontinued larger .45, modified and used as parts by the PC, might've been cleared out and sent back to the main factory parts dept after a while. Just another one of those lost bits of info that nobody will remember after a few more people retire, I guess.