Ruger DA Revolvers, Wadcutter's supplemental owner’s manual part two

Previously: Ruger DA Revolvers, Wadcutter's supplemental owner’s manual part one

In this installment, we learn about disassembly and detail stripping of the Ruger revolvers like the SP101 and GP100.

In my last post I explained why I'm posting someone else's work. Long story short: I saved this from wadcutter's blog, which has now been deleted. I present it here because I think it's good information that needs to be shared. I have no way to contact wadcutter for permission. Hopefully wadcutter won’t mind.

Part II: Further disassembly of Ruger DA revolvers

!!!DISCLAIMER!!!
I am not a gunsmith. None of the procedures depicted here are recommended by Ruger (and in fact, their user’s manuals advise against such disassembly). While the following procedures did not adversely affect the function or safety of my guns, I take no responsibility for your actions. It is my belief that the procedures described below are not beyond the means of average gun owners with reasonable mechanical proficiencies. However, if you do not feel confident in your abilities, I urge you to forego these procedures and have gunsmith perform them for you.
!!!DISCLAIMER!!!

The trigger group
Dissasembling the trigger group of a SP, GP or SRH is fairly straightforward. The following instructions apply to each of them, and the procedure is similar for a SecSix (Sorry, I don’t know anything about Redhawk trigger disassembly).

The first thing you do is slightly press in the trigger guard latch (KW04600) while pushing its cross-pin (KE-22) out either direction with a paperclip. The trigger guard latch, its spring and the trigger link plunger should all fall out. Be careful at this point: if you pull the trigger, the pawl plunger and spring will go flying with a PIIINNNG!!! Put the assembly in a clear plastic bag, then pull the trigger (the bag will contain the plunger and spring). While it is still in the bag, pull the cylinder latch off too (KW04501) along with it’s spring and plunger.

It is now safe to remove the assembly from the bag. With the trigger rearward, pull the transfer bar off, then push out the trigger pivot pin (KE02800) with your paperclip. Disassembly is now complete.

While disassembling, pay particular attention to the following three things:
A. look at how part #KH03200 (the trigger plunger) fits with all of the other associated parts.
B. Pay attention to which plunger is which, i.e. KH05100 (pawl plunger) vs. KE-51 (cylinder latch plunger). They are different.
C. Keep track of the order in which things come apart, so you can do the exact reverse when re-assembling.

Getting it back together is somewhat trickier than getting it apart. If you do the above A,B and C it will help. There are certain parts of the reassembly where you simply have to work outside of a bag to clearly see what you are doing, and at those times you are liable to encounter a PIIINNNNG!!! The most difficult part is getting the pawl plunger and spring back underneath the pawl. If these parts do get eaten by your carpet, call Ruger for replacements; they are accustomed to owners losing them.

While you have the assembly apart, look for burrs inside the cast trigger guard. Every one of my Ruger DAs has had some sharp points in there that try to dig into the sides of the trigger. Get a jeweler’s file in there to remove them and you’ll likely smoothen up your trigger pull a bit.

The crane/cylinder group
The following instructions apply to the GP, the SRH and the Redhawk. The cylinder of an SP comes right off the crane after removing them from the frame, and the cylinder of a SecSix is almost as trivial to remove (just unscrew the ejector rod-- keep in mind it is reverse threaded and may be rather tight).











The only tricky thing to do here is to remove the pivot pin (H05600). To do this, you punch it out while simultaneously pushing in the spring-loaded pivot lock (KH07500). The pivot pin is held in pretty securely, and it takes some force to get it out. It helps to have a padded vice to do this, but here is another way:



















Pound a small nail into the corner of a 2x4. Clip the head off and file it smooth. This nail is what you will use to pop the pivot pin out (by forcing the crane down upon it).























With my left hand, I am depressing the lock (using an inflation needle, which works very well for this task). With my right hand, I am pressing downward on the crane to get the nail to push the pivot pin out. Note that I am not pushing upon the cylinder; that could bend the crane and cause all sorts of problems.

Once the pivot pin is out, just pull the ejector rod out and then pull the cylinder off the crane. (The ejector rod serves to push two ball bearings radially outward into a groove inside the cylinder, which locks the cylinder on the crane. That’s why you must remove the ejector rod to get the cylinder off of a GP, SRH or Redhawk. SPs don’t have those bearings; the cylinder is just held on by a lump of metal on the frame, which is why their cylinders come off without any trouble).

I do this disassembly once every 1000 rounds or so, and use an oiled cotton swab to clean out the axis of the cylinder. In particular, crud can build up in the ball-bearing groove, which will make the DA trigger pull rough. (Once I even found one of my beard whiskers in there, which was almost doubling the trigger pull on a couple of chambers).

Reassembling isn’t particularly difficult, but getting the pivot pin aligned with the front latch (KH03100) requires some patience. As with disassembly, you will have to use some force on the pivot pin. A nylon or wooden mallet will seat it home with one good smack. Remember to push in the pivot lock while doing this.

Another reason to disassemble the cylinder and crane group is if you want to fix the endshake of your gun. Most Ruger DAs will have a mil or two of endshake, but my GP161 had considerably more. While it wasn’t causing any functional problems, I decided to do something about it anyway. I fashioned the small bearing in the middle of this picture from a thin stainless steel shim washer:

















First I reamed out the washer’s hole to 295 mils (the washer’s OD was 380 mils to begin with, which is perfect for this application). Then I began thinning it by rubbing it in a figure-eight motion on a sheet of 500 grit paper, until its thickness was about 12 mils. Likewise, I also polished a couple of mils off the end of the crane, which was somewhat rough and uneven to start with. Here it is now:








I put the bearing into the cylinder and re-assembled, noting it was too thick since the cylinder would not close. I kept disassembling, thinning the bearing one mil, and then reassembling until the cylinder closed and spun freely (the bearing was 8 mils thick by the end of this process). There is now only the slightest hint of endshake in my GP161, and the procedure smoothened up the trigger pull a little (probably from evening out and polishing the end of the crane).

If you don’t want to make your own, Brownells sells cylinder bearings that are 2 mils thick; you just keep adding them until you’ve got the correct thickness. One final tip: it can be very difficult to remove these bearings once they are deep inside the cylinder. To get them out, pull the ejector star about halfway out and allow it to snap back. Repeating this several times will pop the bearing out.

One disassembly that I do not recommend is the ejector star group. There’s really no reason to take it out of the cylinder, and it would be very difficult to do so anyway. (You would need to unscrew the ejector retainer (KH02400), which would require some sort of screwdriver with a hole drilled coaxially through it to avoid the center pin rod (KT05400). Ruger says that the retainer is screwed in with a powerful locking compound, and if you try to remove it you will likely damage something).