Twice a year I take every single thing out of my safe, update my make, model & S/N list. Wipe everything down with Breakfree Preservative oil.

About 2-3 years ago I bought some wonder oil at a gun show I was at. I thought it was maybe a bit too thick but then I thought it wouldn't burn off under shooting a match or run down the gun while in the safe. Turns out, I should've listened to my instincts. After a period of time it turns into a mass of fucking goo. It locked up a slide on a Beretta Inox, locked up the cylinder on two of my Smiths where you couldn't even move the release nor cock the hammer.

So as part of my bi-annual wipe down, I resolved to remove & clean both cylinders, restoring both to perfect working condition. I've pulled cylinders before, it's not fucking rocket science nor brain surgery. I know about the reverse threads so as to not bugger up the ejection rod. I use an old leather belt to pad the vice jaws so as to not harm the finish on the ejector rod. In short, I know WTF I'm supposed to do to make this a painless project.

When cleaning nasty guns I use mineral spirits. It works well on gunk and easily removes old oil, gun powder & dries quickly. I switched a couple of years ago to odorless mineral spirits. For those whom may not know, the odorless version is not clear like the standard version. It's almost a milk-like opacity, you certainly can't see the bottom of the pan. Hell, you can't see 1/4" into the solvent either.

First up was my Model 19. Got the cylinder off the frame, got the ejection rod out with no fuss at all. Began soaking the crane, cylinder, extractor star, etc in the cleaning pan. Cleaned off all the hardened gunk from the miracle oil piece by piece, checking the parts with others, ensuring smooth operation. Everything was working smooth as a super model's butt. Nothing rearing its ugly head.

Using a bent pipe cleaner, I oiled every surface area of the entire cylinder assembly. There was nothing metal that didn't have a light coat of Breakfree on it. Once I was happy everything was as good as it could get, I began what I thought was going to be a painless re-assembly.

My ass.  

I slid the cylinder asy down into the frame, taking care to not scratch the blueing anywhere. I thought I would refrain from reinserting the crane retention screw on the opposite side of the frame until I was sure everything was GTG. Only onw tiny little problem: the cylinder would NOT latch back into the frame like it was supposed to. Damn!

I monkeyed with that thing for close to 45 minutes, trying everything possible to make that cylinder pop-in. Nothing. The tension rod that sticks up in the middle of the extractor star (don't know the name of this piece, sorry) seems to be the culprit in not letting it close. I completely removed it & tried it without it. Voila! It closed just as pretty as you please. Ok, clearly I've not done a correct re-assembly. But where did I go wrong? There's only a few pieces inside the crane, they only fit one way. So, WTF?

I thought maybe I tightened the ejector rod too tightly, not allowing enough travel for the tension rod to depress back into the cylinder & allowing it to close. So I backed off the rod until it was only hand tight. Nope, still won't close!

Well, kiss my redneck fat ass!  

Hmmmmm. I have a second S&W to do the same thing to. How about I pop off that cylinder, see what's different? The second one is a Model 17, a .22LR caliber. Surely there's no difference between the two, I thought? So I go through the process again, removing the cylinder assembly from the Model 17.

I eased out the ejection rod from the crane & thought, hmmmmm. That's different. There is a bushing on the bottom half of the ejection rod, holding the larger of the two springs from travelling upwards. I don't have that on my Model 19. Did I lose the thing? I was in my garage, I would've heard it hitting the concrete floor, even with my hearing. I had a nice, flat table. It wasn't getting lost in a crack between boards.

Then I eyed the cleaning pan! I use a bread baking pan, about 1/2 the size of a normal shoebox. I ran my fingers all across the bottom of the pan & as sure as god made little green apples, I found that GD bushing! It was a slightly smaller diameter than a new pencil eraser & about half as tall.

I slide it down inside the crane, add the spring, re-assemble the cylinder & PRESTO! It closes like it was brand new! SOB!!! It was FIXED!!!!! I only wasted 45 minutes playing with this thing. Had I been able to see the bottom of the pan I would've seen the bushing lying in there. I hadn't done a cylinder tear-down in probably close to 15 years so my memory was a bit shaky.

Of course, the second gun went like shit through a goose.

I was happy I hadn't forced anything, bending something in the process. Ughhhhh. No more miracle oils for me!

It's called a base pin on the Smith, just like on a SAA.

In my young and dumb days, I hosed down a couple Ruger P series pistols with WD40. Imagine my surprise when it turned to varnish and was a bitch to clean. I also had Tetra grease dry out and lock up a couple 1911s that were in long term storage.

If I'm putting something away for more than just a couple months, I barricade it. Barricade dries to a film and doesn't do that.

I had the same thing happen when I lubed my guns with Breakfree and somebody told me to try Ballistol.
They don't play well together. Had a nice Gel mess on the lockwork.

I thought a base pin on a SAA was what you press down to remove the cylinder rod?

Mine wasn't a pin, it was a bushing that was hidden in the pan. Numrich calls it an "extractor rod collar". (I had to look it up. LOL)


I was warned a long, long time ago by a 'smith to never use WD40 on a gun as it gunks up over time.

I've heard of lubes not playing well together. I've been lucky to have had avoided that so far.

I'm glad you figured it out.

Was it regular Break Free CLP you were using?  I'm curious because I never ran into the varnishing problem you did when using it.

I've cleaned more dried Hoppes Oil than I care to think about.

Oh, lord no. I have used Breakfree for decades with no issues. This was some red-liquid-in-a-bottle that someone was selling at a gun show. It seemed to have a viscosity of 90W oil or close to it. I should've known better but I thought thicker oil was less likely to burn off of a gun during a match. Technically I was correct about that but I had to learn to NOT leave that shit on my guns.

I haven't seen any at gun shows in years so it's probably been discontinued. Good riddance.

Thanks for setting me straight.  I realize now you had written that in your original post.  
See what I get for reading and posting before I'm fully awake

Lots of no name snake oil wonder lubes for sale at gun shows . Usually next to the beef jerky guy .
Stick to the proven name brands.

No argument on any of that. The issue was at a 3 Gun match my 1187 choked because I ran it hot enough to burn the oil off of it. So I thought perhaps a thicker viscosity would be JUST the ticket to preventing that. Shit.

The only two oils I now use is Breakfree & Lucas' synthetic gun oil.

You thought wrong.  You need to recheck your SAA nomenclature.

Looked at the S&W schematic & NO where does it list the words "base pin" anywhere on the parts list. No where.

Look yourself


Colt does in fact list theirs as a "base pin screw" which holds the cylinder rod (base pin) in place.

Schematic