so I bought a colt 1860 44. good shape and matching serial #"s. cylinder is matching also but the nipples were completely worn out. seeing as most of the cyl scroll work was gone I decided on a new cylinder to save any more wear on the original to keep the serial # visible. was informed a uberti cylinder would do the trick so got one. when trying to install on the cylinder pin it was found the cylinder pin hole in the cylinder was too small and would not fit. had the cylinder reamed out to go over the pin and looked good but found it would not rotate or lock in place when using the action. decided to go with new nipples for the old cylinder so after 3 day soaking in wd40 managed to get them out with minimal effort and no damage. had a gunsmith measure them up for me and ordered new .225x32(original colt 1860)nipples. now when they came, and they are clearly marked, I found when installing they would almost fall into the nipple holes. they are even visibly different with a longer thread on the originals and diameter is clearly larger on the originals. I am really baffled about this and would like to hear any thoughts on what is going on. I had heard each gun was hand fitted but would they allow that much variance that nothing interchanges? thanks for any replies
colt 1860 puzzle
- Thread starter tliner
- Start date
Possibly the old cylinder had the nipple ports re-tapped to a larger size at some point. Try and identify the threads and get nipples to suit. You should be able to identify the thread from the old nipples you just pulled out.
tliner
I put a uberti cylinder on a 1851 colt i had to shorten the hand because the ratchet teeth on the rear of the cylinder were not in the same place as the original you could also grind down the ratchet teeth but you could easily ruin the cylinder doing that so i don't recommend doing it that way.
you can check it by lining up the cylinder with the barrel then with your ear next to the cylinder turn the cylinder forward if you hear the click of the hand dropping into the cylinder ratchet
you know it's too long.
I put a uberti cylinder on a 1851 colt i had to shorten the hand because the ratchet teeth on the rear of the cylinder were not in the same place as the original you could also grind down the ratchet teeth but you could easily ruin the cylinder doing that so i don't recommend doing it that way.
you can check it by lining up the cylinder with the barrel then with your ear next to the cylinder turn the cylinder forward if you hear the click of the hand dropping into the cylinder ratchet
you know it's too long.
if you bring it into homedepot or any fastener store they should have a plate with all the different screw sizes tapped on it. you just try each one until you find the right size.
as far a trimming the hand, buy a second one and do it to that one, keeping the original as is, in case you wish the sell the pistol in the future with the original cylinder.
thanks for all the reply guys. I have since found that 3 of the cylinder nipple holes are size 1/4-28 and the other 3 are a larger size that have to be determined. it has been retapped but why they didn't do all 6 the same is beyond me. the original nipples look older than the gun so it must have been done long in the past
Lots of those old cylinders were re-tapped for larger thread sizes. Gunsmiths/owners didn't waste money re-tapping threads that didn't need it - that's how things were done 100 years ago. Inconvenience wasn't a big consideration.
