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Cylinder of my LCR is too tight, cylinder can’t rotate freely. Penetrating oil isn’t doing the job, so I figured to pull the cylinder and clean and grease the surfaces.
Well, crane comes out but I just can not get the reverse thread cyl screw loose. There are no flats or features to use a tool. Any advice to pop this one loose?
First, soak the rod for several days with a quality penetrating oil. Fill the cylinder with empty cases and clean the exposed end of the extractor rod with alcohol or acetone to remove any oil. Clamp the cylinder in a padded vise and wrap a piece of reasonably thick leather around the rod and then using a pair of pliers, FIRMLY grip the leather-wrapped rod with a pair of pliers or vise-grips and remember in this case it is "righty loosey." That will usually do the trick.
Thank you! Any alternative to a leather wrapper plier? That always gives me heebie-jeebies the few times ive used that method.
Well, you could make an aluminum jig that is split in half with a hole drilled through the center of the split that is just a few thousandths smaller than the diameter of the extractor rod and then tighten the bolts down to clamp the rod firmly and use an appropriately sized wrench to turn it.
But if you have that level of expertise, by my way of thinking, you'd have already done it.;-)
Actually I do that ALL the time. With round objects > 1/4". And the jig is always oak with rosin.
but I figured the oak couldn't grip such a small shaft? And you say Aluminum, wouldn't that be a high risk to scratch the finish?
If you need to turn the ejector rod use the paddd vice to hold the rod and turn the cylinder with your hand, unscrewing the rod. Just turn it in the correct direction and do not bend the rod.
I use a cordless drill chuck
Properly made, the aluminum jig won't scratch the rod, provided the aluminum is not too hard, something like 6061 or other soft alloy.. It won't slip. But what if it does? Umm, this IS an LCR, not a pre-war 357 S&W. And the cylinder is binding. It seems to me that to restore it to functionality is the goal. Gun parts sells the EJECTOR EXTENSION, NEW FACTORY ORIGINAL for $11.43. I'd take the slight risk of scratching the rod, knowing that replacements are available, over a pistol-shaped paper weight. Your gun, your call.
I do this ALL the time. I use a shop vise with red oak soft jaw inserts just crank the rod down hard and turn the cylinder clockwise looking from the top. If the rod spins, crank the vise down more.
To reassemble, use the same procedure but turn the cylinder counter clockwise.
Out of thousands of S&W cylinders (which have the same LEFT HAND thread as the LCR) I only found one that needed heat to break the thread locker, most people don't use thread locker on the ER, good hand tight like I described above will work.
I always used soft jaws and a vice. Leather would be ideal. It doesn't take a lot of force. As others have said, the LCR ejector rod unscrews S&W style. I don't recall if you need the special Ruger bit to remove the ejector star or not.
One word of caution, be gentle cleaning the inside of the cilinder hole for the single reason that the LCR has a delicate bushing with fingers in there. If you break those fingers nothing else is holding the cylinder on.