Binding when hand of 1942 Victory rubs on cartridge

[Matt_X]

I bought 1942 Victory (.38 Spl) that looks to have been rehabbed. The frame was refinished in a bluing, while the hammer and tricgger recieved a 'jewel' finish. Only operational issues seemed to be a fair amount of endshake and a slight misalignment of the yoke.


To the best of my ability I brought the yoke into alignment (using a gage) so the cylinder latch opened smooth.



The yoke to frame was pretty tight but accepted one .002" shim.

Cylinder to yoke accepts four (4), 0.002" shims, resulting in just barely perceptable endshake. However, this sometimes causes DA stop drop to be a hair late when testing with empty shells. Lets come back to this, as it does not happen with 3 shims.


With either 3 or four shims there is binding on one chamber which seems to be from the hand rubbing on the rim of the adjacent cartridge.


What is supposed to keep the hand from doing that?


I bought a new ratchet from Numrich which I can use for some dimensional and visual comparisons. One that stood out right away was that its about .009" taller.

 

[armorer951]

Welcome to the forum

Can you measure the rear gauge (headspace) in the gun without the shims? Depending on the position of the hand in the frame window when it is extended, and the boss on the extractor, the cylinder may be too close to the breechface now.

You can likely fix the end shake on the yoke with a new yoke screw, or by peening the yoke button....instead of using a shim.

If your rear gauge is within specifications, between .060" and .068", you can forget about most of the perceived end shake problem.

Also, the gun must have a huge front barrel/cylinder gap after installation of .008" worth of shims?


Carter

 

[Protocall_Design]

If the hand sticks out past the recoil shield, it can catch on the rim of the brass. Not knowing the amount of barrel/cyl. gap without shims, it's hard to say which way to go. You might try the new ratchet and see if it solves some problems. If it's good, and you have tight cyl. gap, you could trim back the forcing cone a wee bit.

 

[Matt_X]

Thank you. Charlie Frick suggested this forum.

I do have some measurements before correcting the yoke alignment and installing shims.

Headspace: .066 to .067"

Barrel to cylinder gap: .003" (cylinder forward) to .012" with cylinder back. This was only checked on one chamber.

With the one yoke-frame shim and four cylinder shims, figuring this moved the cylinder .006" rearward.

Looking at my notes for 2/15/23
Cylinder to barrel gap: 0 .013 to .016 left side, right is a little tighter.
Headspace: 0.060"

Went to the range on 2/17 and that's when the binding was noticed. (Didn't show up with the dummy rounds).

Today 3/4/23 made the first checks (photographed) with only 3 shims in the cylinder.

In the photos above it looks like the ratchets were contacting the frame before the center boss.

Comparing the ratchet assembly overall length.
V71179 is at most 1.620 "
New? from Numrich 1.633"


The new ratchet's pin hole does not line up with the existing pin the cylinder. So I can't drop it fully into position.

 

[Matt_X]

What is supposed to keep the hand from doing that?

Observing the hand movement through its frame aperture, all of its contact is from the center and to the left.

It appears that only time the right side of the hand contacts a rim is where there is a notch in the web or ramp. (See photos). My conclusion is the hand's aperture may provide some support but the web are what keep the hand clear of the cartridges. yes, no??

I can't think of anything that would reliably fill that notch, other than, maybe a taller pin pressed into the cylinder.

Another route could be to angle back the right 1/3 or 1/4 of the hand's tip.

You might try the new ratchet and see if it solves some problems.

Yes, this would be the least risky and preserve the other components.

Is it typical for a replacement ratchet to have an alignment hole that doesn't match the pin's position in the cylinder?

Were these mated during production, hence the number on ratchet and cylinder to make sure they remained paired?