I wouldn't expect you did, but did you do one of those movie-based wrist snaps to close the cylinder? That's not something I'd expect you'd do, but it's one of the few ways I can envision someone damaging the yoke.Originally Posted by 03RN
With the cylinder installed, if you open the cylinder and inspect the gap between cylinder and frame (with cylinder at full open and parallel to the bottom of the frame), what does the gap look like?
Chris
No, no snapping shut
I’m just trying to think what could have suddenly happened to the yoke while shooting.
A tweaked crane being mis-aligned is probably the most common culprit if everything has been cleaned up and the problem continues. I know you said you haven’t slammed the cylinder closed. A previous owner may have caused it by slamming the cylinder closed. Inspect the area where the crane mates with the frame. Gaps in the fit are a good indication that the crane is sprung. Brownells sells a crane alignment tool for this problem. That tells you how common it is of a problem.
Yoke not aligned was a very common issue and one of first things checked when I worked at a S&W repair center. There is a tool to check this. You remove cylinder, place tool inside the yoke and close the yoke. Projection on end of tool should align with the bolt and move freely back and forth as you move the cylinder latch back. If it doesn’t move feely, you will have to carefully adjust yoke to restore alignment. Usually done with lead bar and hammer.
The first indication a bad guy should have that I'm dangerous is when his
disembodied soul is looking down at his own corpse wondering what happened.
Try switching the round headed frame and yoke side plate screws if you’re having the yoke closing seem to be hard. I’m not sure if that’s contributing to the other issues, but it should open and close without interference, and I think that what I am seeing from the pictures is showing that this is still using the normal looking screws, only one of which is fitted to the yoke. If I misinterpreted the pictures and you have the spring loaded yoke plunger screw, please disregard.
Last edited by Scal; 07-14-2018 at 09:07 PM.
It doesn't look like that. It looks like it fits tight. I just ordered on from eBay in like new condition for $25. If that doesn't work I'll send her home because Im not sure what else it could be.
To clarify -- you ordered a new yoke from eBay, or a new yoke alignment tool?
If the former, these parts are fitted at the factory, don't usually swap (even if they appear to they might not function optimally or even correctly), and require some know-how to fit properly; too, yoke design can differ depending on dash era of your Model 19's production, so you'll need to make sure you've gotten the proper one. If the latter and you've purchased a yoke alignment tool, there's know-how and finesse required to properly realign a yoke. Hopefully you're experienced 'smithing on S&W revolvers and have the right tools and ability; it's easy to make little problems into big ones if you're flying blind. Heck, most folks don't seem to know how to properly remove the sideplate, much less anything actually challenging. At minimum you should at least have the Kuhnhausen manual.
Anyway, the problem you're having has several possible causes and it's difficult to diagnose at distance. You've cleaned the revolver well and confirmed the extractor rod is properly tightened -- good start. Yes, it could be a sprung yoke barrel, but you need the proper tool to check that (and then the aforementioned tool to correct it, or good revolversmith who does).
How much endshake are you working with? Too much endshake won't cause this, but too little can. S&W's by design need a little endshake to function properly; if yours is less than .001", you might be dealing with thermal expansion firing .357s causing temporary binding (which could be why the cooler shooting .38s didn't cause it). This isn't common, but with stacking tolerances it can happen.
What's your barrel-to-cylinder gap and headspace measure at? Do you have the right tool to properly gauge index? How do the barrel and cylinder face look in terms of any build-up when you're experiencing binding? If your carry up is slightly off and the revolver's not indexing correctly at lock up, you'll shave bits of bullet onto the barrel face and get binding and lock-up, too. I've had this happen.
More for you to chew on, anyway. Keep us posted. Personally, unless you're S&W wheel gun savvy, you're likely better off letting a good revolversmith give it the once-over and resolve it, unless you're heavily inclined to tinker and make mistakes as you go, some of which might be expensive, time-consuming and unnecessary.
Yes, it will. I just did a tune up on an N frame that was exhibiting just this kind of thing and excessive end shake was the cause. It was .002" past max tolerance on acceptable end shake.
OP, stop mucking with the gun and find a smith who can fix it. This isn't a Glock and you're likely to make it worse.
We may lose and we may win, but we will never be here again.......
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