638 cylinder problem

[carguychris]

Howdy all,

I've had a problem with the cylinder on my 638-3 over the last couple of range trips and I'd like some advice.

Two range trips back, the cylinder became really hard to turn after I had fired ~60-70 rounds and the gun was getting pretty hot. This made the trigger pull really stiff.

I took the yoke and cylinder off and discovered a bunch of thick, grey, greasy glop on the yoke. I figure it must be assembly lube. Wiped it off, gave it a liberal coat of Breakfree CLP, reassembled it, and everything seemed fine.

On the next range trip, the problem reoccured. This time I took the yoke off at the range and discovered more nasty grey glop. Wiped it off, fired ~20 more shots, and the problem reoccured. Took the yoke off again, fired ~20 more shots, same thing happens. At this point I'm getting pretty frustrated.

FWIW the cylinder was hard to turn when it was swung out to the side, so this is not caused by a loose ejector rod or crud under the ejector star.

Took the gun home, took out the cylinder, unscrewed the ejector rod, took out the springs and everything, and discovered more grey glop. I cleaned the yoke and other parts with solvent, cleaned out the inside of the cylinder with Q-tips, and coated everything with a light coat of Breakfree. I also discovered some cast lead bullet fragments (I handload) and powder residue inside the cylinder. Some of the lead residue around the forward end of the yoke was stuck so firmly that had to be scraped off with a dental pick.

After I put everything back together, the cylinder spins really freely but makes a "swish-swish-swish" sound.

FWIW I bought the gun new last year and have probably fired ~2,000 rounds through it since.

Questions:

1) I'm thinking this problem was caused by excessive lubricant inside the cylinder from the factory. I used to lubricate it with a drop of Breakfree or RemOil every once in a while, but I'm now thinking I should stop doing this. Thoughts?

2) Do y'all think that the lead bullet residue had anything to do with it? I've never had this problem with any of my other S&W revolvers. I shoot lots of cast lead handloads without any problems.

3) Is the "swish-swish" sound anything to be concerned about? I'm wondering if it's the ejector rod spring.

I'm tempted to send the gun back in to S&W, but then I'd have nothing to pocket-carry.

 

[jimmyj]

Hi
Consider disassembling the Model 638 cleaning the entire weapon, then very lightly lubricating with a "Q tip the internal parts.
Reassembling the weapon and take it to the range and try jacketed rounds. If You have been using Cast Bullets, the bullet lubriate could be the "Culprit".
Jimmy

 

[Alk8944]

This means nothing more than the clearance between the cylinder bore and the yoke arbor are on the close side. Having a gun start to tie up after 60+ rounds due to powder fouling is not unusual. The solution is simple, when it starts getting a little tight just remove the yoke & cylinder, pull the cylinder off and clean the arbor, put a drop of oil down the cylinder bore and on the arbor and re-assemble. It will do this with either lead or jacketed ammunition and is more a result of the powder used and not the bullet material.

I have an old K-38, 1948, that I used to shoot PPC. It would start to tie up after 12 rounds, so I had to clean it between every stage. Never did see this as a real problem, just an inconvenience.

Just remember that when it starts to get tight and hard to cock the gun because of it this is putting much greater than normal strain on the hand and ratchet. Attempting to continue shooting instead of taking a minute or two to clean and lubricate the cylinder really is abusing the mechanism.

 

[Wayne M]

Cast bullets have always been really hard on any J frame I've owned. When cleaned the way I like a K or L will usually go at least 500 between cleanings and often I just keep shooting and loose count but the little J's usually gunk up after 50, sometimes they'll go 100 if I'm lucky. Jacketed is another matter. On the other hand I'm usually satisfied and have had about all I want from a J after 50 or so of my loads. I'm with you: I think the cast lead is your problem and you'll just have to put up with it. Once when I was active LE we bought several cases of WW 130gr FMJ ammo for practice for the people who carried 38's as backup. J's ate that stuff and would go HUNDREDS without cleaning(also great fun to shoot.....almost no recoil compared to just about anything else).