Posted: 7/15/2007 5:47:08 PM EDT
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I have an older S&W Model 10-5 with an intermittent problem. Once in a while, say 5% of the time, after firing a round (or dry firing), the gun will lock up. IE, trigger won't move, hammer can't be pulled back. I can open the cylinder, and close it, and it will work fine. No obvious timing issues seen. It does appear to be related to a particular chamber (I am trying to confirm that). I don't see anything obviously wrong with the ejector star. I don't grok the revolvers operation enough to understand what would be the critical point that binding up. Any suggestions on where to look? http://www.genitron.com/IntRevolver.html |
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Is the ejector rod bent? This will cause it to bind on the eliptical cycle on a particular chamber, I would think? Pretty easy to bend a lot of these rods too. I would lay a straight edge of some sort across all angles of the cylinder to check for trueness & no out of roundness problems. Sorry I wasn't much help! 
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Easiest way to diagnose this - assuming you know how to do it correctly - is pull the sideplate and see what‘s going on internally. Note that: 1 - you never pry the sideplate off with a screwdriver or such. Rather, remove the grips and sideplate screws, then hit the normally concealed grip part of the frame with something like a plastic mallet to vibrate the sideplate loose. 2 - with older Smith’s, you never mix up the forward most sideplate screw (which holds the yoke and cylinder to the frame) with the other screws. With newer Smith’s, the screws are visibly different anyway. 3 - when you work the action with the sideplate off, various internal parts (most esp. the hammer) will start to walk out. You’ll need to constantly reseat those parts with your thumb. My guess is that the bolt isn’t always releasing the cylinder quickly enough. The bolt is the sorta half-moon shaped projection in the frame that engages the six notches visible on the outside of the cylinder so the cylinder is locked during firing. However, there’s plenty of other possibilities. |
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Assuming you have already lubricated it, two things I have found...a loose side plate causing working parts to become misaligned, the other was old hardened lubrication that has turned to varnish. Both problems are easy to check and if you have the first one, the second one is easier because the slide plate is already loose for removal and subsequent cleaning & lubrication. If the sideplate is still tight, you may want to try flushing out the internals as you work the action and see if it frees up. Opening and spinning the cylinder should make it easier to spot a bent ejector rod. Also, by opening the cylinder and holding it's latch in the rearward position, you can then cycle the action to see if it still hangs up, if it does, you have removed the cylinder assembly out of the equation. |
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Still having the problem. Internals are clean. It really looks like a problem with the extractor star. Still looks like one particular cylinder (or rather 1 spot on the extractor) is the problem. Of course its the old style extractor, so fixing it means sending it back to S&W. |
Sounds to me as if something got bent once upon a time. You shouldn't sweat sending it to S&W, IMO. They've done me nicely on price 2-3 times I've used them. Much like any shop these days, the quality of work is only as good as who's working there at any particular time. Be sure to post when you get it fixed & how much it was, please. |