A STICKY S&W MODEL 43

[Toyman]

I was at Antique Arms Show in Las Vegas. A fellow member of S&W Collectors asked me to help him get the cylinder open. When I tried to open cylinder could not move the release and could not pull hammer back or move the trigger.
I brought the gun home expecting to open the side plate and find a ot of congealed oil, but the oil was like normal.
I removed the trigger and trigger return slide. BUT not my first real problem.
When I tried to cock the hammer to put a pin in the main spring struct I found the struct was different than any I had ever seen. The others from J frame had a pin in the hammer and the top of the strut was a fork that fit around the pin.
This one had a socket hole in trigger and a round top on the strut hand rotated so the hole was not accessible. The strut was under tension so rotating it was hard. I carefully grabbed it with a vise grip and was able to rotate it far enough to pit pin in.
No with the frame empty I still could not get cylinder release to move.
I took a brass punch and tapped the rear of the center pin twice. The center pin did not rerun toward the rear so the problem with opening the cylinder was the center pin was frozen.
I still could not open cylinder to gave the cylinder some love taps and it opened enough so I could pull cylinder totally open.
I removed yoke and cylinder from the frame and the cylinder was hard to remove from the yoke.
I unscrewed the ejector road and disassembled the rest of the internals from cylinder.
Then cleaned all parts with brake cleaner and Kroil as the center pin was very sticky. After through cleaning all the varnished oil was removed from center pin and reassembled the gun operated normally.

 

[chief38]

Glad you were successful! There are still a few people who just do not understand how dried, congealed oil and grease combined with years of neglect can cause so many problems. I can not tell you how many revolvers I have seen that are so over lubricated! IMHO, as much as I strive and preach for proper lubrication, less lube is actually preferable to too much.

That is also why people who say to me their S&W revolvers should never be opened up or serviced are not "in the know". I have seen so many S&W revolvers over many years worth of production that have been under or over lubricated right out of the Factory! There has been rust, corrosion, pitting and stickiness inside. So just like ANY other mechanical metallic devise with a lock-work, S&W revolvers do need service once in a while and are not "permanently sealed' devises.

I get why S&W and many manufacturers say never to open up their products. IMHO, mostly liability reasons as they are afraid that unknowledgeable owners will make things worse than to leave them alone - from their standpoint that might be correct! IMHO, they should offer reasonable factory servicing as should all local Gun Smiths. A big oversight IMO.

I normally service my frequently fired revolvers every few years and seldom fired revolvers about 6-7 years. This takes me about 30-45 minutes per revolver and keeps them in tip top operating condition. I have never messed up a gun in doing so and never have to guess on what is going on inside. If there is a slightly buggered up screw head in a used gun I may have bought, service time is the time to repair it. Many issues and problems can easily and inexpensively be avoided with proper maintenance.

 

[ColbyBruce]

Folks don’t realize how common it is to have small seeds work their way into a revolver when it is carried through woods and fields. I have cleaned pigweed, curled dock, alfalfa, lespedeza, clovers and dodder seeds inside S&W actions.

 

[Toyman]

I am not sure when the gun was lubed the last time or what was used.
Any advise a lube that is least likely to varnish ?
I know not to use WD40 and REMOIL.

 

[ColbyBruce]

I am not sure when the gun was lubed the last time or what was used.
Any advise a lube that is least likely to varnish ?
I know not to use WD40 and REMOIL.

I have a LEO buddy who was also the resident armorer. He used Singer sewing machine oil.

 

[oldrookey617]

LUCAS GUN OIL..

 

[Protocall_Design]

I use Lucas gun oil (red) and Lucas Extreme Duty gun oil (blue). The red is thinner viscosity than the blue, they are both synthetic and don't gel over time like the older oils do. I use blue for the lockworks and red for the yoke barrel. The needle applicators allow you to put just a drop here and there, without having to cover every surface. Look for these on Amazon. These are not motor oil.