Cleaning a gummed up action?

[NewDeparture]

A friend of mine has an old 4in Hand Ejector Model of 1905 that has been in is wife´s family for a long time.

After his father in law passed away, his mother in law kept it for a long time but unfortunately she lubricated it for years with cooking oil until she finally gave it to my friend.

The action is heavily gummed up due to that. It takes a lot of effort to pull the trigger in DA, and then the hammer drops real s-l-o-w.

He tried spraying a ton of WD40, with no results. Also washed it with gas several times, which helped a little but still pretty gummed up.

He doesn´t want to remove the sideplate (which I agree in not doing so, since the screws seems to be a little bit rusty and we don´t want to bugger them).
So what else can be done? We were thinking about rinsing it in boiling water w/some degreaser (like dish soap) for a few minutes but I´m afraid of rusting internal parts by doing so.

Would brake cleaner be of some help? Never tried that before. Would it affect the nickel finish?

Thanks,

New Departure

 

[tlawler]

I'd soak it in Ed's Red or Kroil for a couple of weeks. Completely immerse it and just forget about it for 2-3 weeks. Hopefully then you could get the side plate off and disassemble some of the action prior to soaking it again.

 

[garbler]

I've seen this before on Euro guns and they explained the solution. Mild heat like in a gas oven with a burning pilot light. Leave it overnight ( remove grip panels ) on a tray and next day it will loosen up like there was no problems at all. Remove side plate and spray everything real good with WD40 and rotate things. WD40 is certainly not my gun favorite product by any means but it removes cooking oils and grease nicely as well as gummy labels. Now you can either soak in kero then blow off or blast clean with Brakcleen then spot lube as needed. These revolvers do not need much lube at all.

 

[Jason Demond]

You will never get a satisfactory cleaning job unless you remove the side plate and gut the gun.

 

[arjay]

Large pot of boiling water. Remove grips and suspend gun in it for awhile. Remove gun and spray some oil into the hammer gap and the trigger gap. The hot metal will vaporize the moisture

 

[sigp220.45]

New paint can, quart of of acetone, quart of automatic transmission fluid, dunk, close, move around every couple of days. After a week remove and blow out with carburetor cleaner.

 

[chief38]

I do agree that the side plate and all internal parts MUST come out. If you do not feel comfortable doing so bring it to a LGS. It's an easy job and he will clean it up, inspect it, properly lube it and reassemble. To not fully take apart you are wasting your time - IMHO.

 

[cmj8591]

This gun needs to be disassembled and cleaned part by part. Soaking in Kroil to get the screws moving is a good start. Spraying stuff, especially WD40, into the action is only going to make matters worse. If you don't feel comfortable taking a screwdriver to the gun, it's probably worth taking it to a professional.

 

[stansdds]

I agree, I think this one will need to be detail stripped, every part cleaned, properly lubricated and reassembled. If you are uncomfortable doing this, find a good gunsmith.

 

[gwpercle]

I like to give them a long soak in acetone ...the most powerful solvent you can purchase at wally mart . Scrubbing in between soaking with a Oral-B tooth brush (they don't melt) , or a small brass brush and very careful scraping of the stubborn hardened crud . Soaked and scrub long enough and it will come clean . Don't try any magic 5 minute dissolver ...some will strip the blue finish off . Acetone will not damage old school blue .
Gary

 

[yeti]

Remove grips and soak the whole thing in Kano Kroil for a week or two. Remove it periodically and work the action.
When action feels vastly improved, do a thorough cleaning.
If you leave the sideplate on (really should remove the sideplate and fully dismantle on this one) use Breakfree aerosol CLP to flush out/lubricate, followed by compressed air to blow out as much of the excess as possible. Test it out and after you do shoot it a bit, flush inside the sideplate again with the BF CLP aerosol as prior.

I think the boiling water is also a good viable option, but I'd be less comfortable with that if you aren't doing a full teardown.

 

[darg]

In case she really used cooking oil any petroleum based solvent won't help. Plant based oils need a dish detergent approach first with a lot of water. When you did the kroil soak you can at least get the side plate off. Then go from there.

 

[oink]

Yeah I'd remove the grips. The oven idea sounds good or careful use of a heat gun or hair blower. I'm a big believer of Brake Cleaner but it's not all the same. The flammable type is probably best. I don't know what's in the non-flammable stuff. I've also found electrical parts cleaner to work amazingly well, even better than Brake Cleaner although more expensive. I have no chrome or nickel guns so I'll let someone else confirm if those chemicals are safe. I've used those chemicals on blued guns but not the newest blue types or the oldest. Just remember that those chemicals will leave the metal with no protection so proper lubrication will be required afterwards.

 

[steelslaver]

If you don't want to take the side plate off get a can of brake cleaner, take the grips off and spay every opening while dry firing the gun, then set it in a pan with a mixture of acetone and ATF for about 5 days and give it some shakes every day, then do the brake cleaner thing again using the little tube to spray in beside the trigger, the hammer, the center pin, the lug under barrel and while working it.

But, one of my brothers got an old 06 with a horrible trigger, did the brake cleaner thing for a couple days, with minimum improvement. Tore the trigger down and worked out the hardened varnish like stuff in trigger. Great trigger then.

Sometimes your better off to disassemble or you may HAVE to