Colt Official Police Yoke/Crane - Cylinder Removal-Be Careful

Back during the last snow, I decided to pull the yoke/crane with cylinder on several revolvers and check for cleaning. I only have one Colt revolver and all others are S&W. I normally don't remove for routine cleaning. The S&W's were easy-peasy. The Colt Official Police is a 1956 model and in excellent condition. I bought it at auction and think it was a "sock drawer" gun. I had never removed the yoke/crane assembly. If you are not familiar with a Colt here are some tips I found out. (of course first off use the proper size hollow ground gunsmith screwdriver)

1. Be careful removing the side plate screw holding the assembly in. It is a two piece design with a very small spring between the two pieces. Didn't know that. (S&W is one piece screw)

2. You can't remove the cylinder from the crane/yoke assembly without a special wrench. I tried turning the ejector knob like on a S&W but no go. I didn't try to force it thankfully. Later I learned that without the proper wrench you can do some serious damage.

3. Was just curious how to take the side plate off the OP not that I intended to do it (on the left had side). Looked at you tube video - don't do it unless you really know what you are doing.

The Colt Official Police was in production for many years and they stopped in 1969 citing too expensive to make. I can see why after watching the you tube video of a guy disassembly one. Lots of small parts and small springs.

Regardless I really love that Colt!

VaTom , I have 2 colt revolvers recently purchased . Both are late models and like yours , pretty much " sock revolvers " . I knew they were later models and figured they hadn't been taken apart , cleaned and oiled since leaving the factory . I'm lucky that I have a expert gun smith right here local , been smithing for 40 yrs . He said it was not a problem for him , as he had owned colts before . He charged me $50 / gun and I felt it was the best money I had spent in a long time . I will clean and oil S&W's , but the colt , let the expert do it . Regards Paul

The main thing to remember when reassembling a Colt is that once the hand (pawl) is in place DO NOT cycle the action to check the function. It will jump just far enough out of alignment that the sideplate will go back on, but with enough pressure on the hand that it will not move. Or so I've been told.

^
The hand has a boss on its pin on which the leading edge of the rebound lever rides. This imparts forward pressure on the hand forcing it forward.
Very easy to think the hand has been fully seated against the trigger when in fact the rebound lever has dropped between the two. I stick a screwdriver between the bottom of the rebound lever and frame, twist to lift it above the boss, then seat the hand.

Using a magnetic screwdriver usually brings the cylinder screw out in one piece - there have been some S&Ws that used the same arrangement, I think - yes?

I think the solution for curing Colt assembly concerns is to buy more Colts.

You can cycle the action with the side plate off as long as the rebound lever is in place and you keep pressure on the hand to keep it from backing out. Of course, I’m not sure I’m using the Colt terms to describe these parts, as they’re often different from other brands. In my opinion, the action is fairly simple to disassemble and reassemble if you’re mechanically inclined and can usually figure out how things work.

The thumbpiece and it's very tiny coil spring can fall free from the side plte once the plate is removed from the frame.
Nice for disassembly, but can also be a problem if you are unfamiliar with the set-up and don't notice the thumbpiece dropping out.

Removing/replacing the V main spring is rather easy but many are chewed up along their arms from pliers and side cutters being used to compress them to remove.

Any damage like that on the spring should be stoned off and the spring polished.
You can remove and re-install with only finger pressure on the arms, no clamps/pliers needed. But it takes a bit of a maneuver to do it. Once you see it done, it's very easy.
The earlier production springs were forged and nicely filed and polished out.
Later they went to a simpler stamped and folded spring steel V spring.
They both work.

Once the main spring is out, the rebound arm can be taken out by removing it's pivot pin.
The rest is pretty straight forward.
The multi piece linkage behind the trigger and hammer that operates the safety bar is fragile and needs to be placed in just right with the small pins inserted into the grooves of the interfacing parts.

When taking the cylinder lock/bolt out,,there is an ultra small dia coil spring that powers it that is in a likewise small dia pocket in the top edge of the bolt and pushes against the upper inside of the frame cutout.
The spring usually stays put in the bolt.
Many times the spring is crimped and bent from previous assembly attempts and/or jammed in place by dirt and old lube.
Slow/lazy cylinder bolt is the result.
A single small dia screw inside is the pivot screw for the bolt.

The bolt is flimsey enough,,but the floor of the frame that the bolt sticks through to catch the cylinder is thin as well.
That window gets battered out of shape a lot of the time. Then the cylinder rocks back and forth badly even though the bolt may be a decent fit in the locking slots in the cyl.
A quick fix and a bad looking one was to peen the window in the frame
back closed to tighten things up again.

You should have a spanner type tool,,mke one or buy one if they still sell them to disassemble the cylinder.
May were disassembled with a needle nose pliers or other makeshift arrangement 'cause it's just as good' ,,and the assembly shows it.

Not a lot of parts around for these old V spring Colts any more. Old guns stripped for parts are usually well worn,,so you get worn out parts.

Timeing is different than a S&W,,the hand is a different design and there are so many small details that make the action work beautifully,,or can stall it and make it seem like it was never meant to work at all.

One of my next projects is a Colt NS in 45C.
Mfg 1905 IIRC. Needs some 'attention' ..

Anyone seriously interested in working on older Colt DA revolvers needs to get a copy of Jerry Kuhnhausen's book "The Colt Double Action Revolvers, A Shop Manual", Volume I.

"You can remove and re-install (V-Spring) with only finger pressure on the arms, no clamps/pliers needed. But it takes a bit of a maneuver to do it."

I use a surgical hemostat.

Colt DAs are really not as difficult to work on as many would have you believe. The main difficulty is parts availability.