Help/Advice needed with Dan Wesson Revolver disassembly

schick

schick

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Greetings.
I had my Dan Wesson 44 mag revolver (Dan Wesson 44v10, I believe) stored at a friends for a while, and it seems to have developed a couple issues.

The cylinder is extremely stiff and takes a lot of effort to turn. It used to spin very freely. The ejector rod was also stiff. Soaking and cleaning the rod worked fine, but I am pretty sure that I need to remove the crane and cylinder to do some maintenance., as soaking it in CLP only helped a bit. I have serviced a few of my own firearms before with success, so I am confident (or crazy) enough to attempt this on my own. I have looked at my Gun Digest Firearms Assembly/Disassembly book for pistols and disassembly appears easy enough, but I have a couple of questions.

Do I need to pull out the hammer before I can remove the trigger guard group?

If I need to pull the hammer, Do I have to relieve tension on the mainspring first? This is a tough one, as the screw normally used to relieve tension is missing. I never received it, (or the barrel bushing wrench) with the gun's purchase.

If I could find the specs for the little screw, I may be able buy one at a hardware store, or grab the tap/die set and adapt a screw. So far I have no idea of the screws specifications.

I know a gunsmith is best, but with this pandemic crap going on, shops are closed all over the damn place.

By the way, I was thinking of adapting an old socket to get the barrel bushing out. I sure as hell am not going to attack it with a pair of needle nose pliers.

Thanks in advance to anyone that might give me a little guidance.
 
I feel for ya' Shick. I had my DW .445 Supermag, sitting in pieces on my kitchen table for over a year, waiting for a part I needed before reassembly. By the time I had it, I had a hard time remembering how it all went back together. An S&W is child's play, in comparison.
You do need that little set screw, to pre-tension the hammer spring, in order to remove it - and I do believe you have to do this before you remove the trigger assy. You're right in not wanting to remove the barrel bushing with a pair of needle nose - that could get ugly. I got lucky and one of our brothers on here, came through with a spare .44 RM barrel wrench he had - fortunately, the .44 and the .445 have the same bore. There's a machine shop in the US (whose name escapes me) that makes these wrenches - but they won't ship to Can. If you're handy with a file and or Dremel, you should be able to make something that will work. If the barrel nut is torqued to OEM specs, it shouldn't require a lot of twist - I seem to recall, it's somewhere around 25 in./lbs.
When I was screwing around with mine, I wound up talking to one of the gun techs at CZ USA - they are looking after DW right now. He was very helpful with information. That may be a source for finding out the size of the hammer spring, set screw.
Good luck with it.
 
Any chance your buddy had access to your revolver and was practicing his "Hollywood" flip-open/flip-closed, gangsta-boy cylinder open/close technique with your revolver? Guaranteed method to do some serious mis-alignment. Just sayin of course.
 
Just thought of something else after re-reading your post, about the cylinder being stiff to turn. Check the barrel/cylinder gap - a .005" feeler gauge should slip in and out, freely.
 
islandguy said:
Any chance your buddy had access to your revolver and was practicing his "Hollywood" flip-open/flip-closed, gangsta-boy cylinder open/close technique with your revolver? Guaranteed method to do some serious mis-alignment. Just sayin of course.
Click to expand...

No chance. He is one knowledgable and considerate gun lover. :)
 
fire@will said:
Just thought of something else after re-reading your post, about the cylinder being stiff to turn. Check the barrel/cylinder gap - a .005" feeler gauge should slip in and out, freely.
Click to expand...

While I do intend to re-gap the barrel, the cylinder is damn tough to turn when unlatched and swung open. Puzzling to me. I do believe teh recommended gap is 0.006, but that is not carved in stone.
 
I notice that EWK Arms sells the barrel nut wrench and barrel nuts. I will have to see if they ship here. That is a long wait for delivery.
 
schick said:
While I do intend to re-gap the barrel, the cylinder is damn tough to turn when unlatched and swung open. Puzzling to me. I do believe teh recommended gap is 0.006, but that is not carved in stone.
Click to expand...

You're probably right about the .006". I knew it was somewhere around there. There's gotta' be some crap in the cylinder/rod assy. No way it shouldn't spin freely. It's a bit of a pain, taking the cylinder out of these things. A thoughtful guy did a pictorial and instructions about taking one of these apart. https://www.danwessonforum.com/forum/reloading/large-frame-disassembly-tutorial-pics/ - hope it helps.
 
fire@will said:
You're probably right about the .006". I knew it was somewhere around there. There's gotta' be some crap in the cylinder/rod assy. No way it shouldn't spin freely. It's a bit of a pain, taking the cylinder out of these things. A thoughtful guy did a pictorial and instructions about taking one of these apart. https://www.danwessonforum.com/forum/reloading/large-frame-disassembly-tutorial-pics/ - hope it helps.
Click to expand...

Tank you. This great. Sadly for me, that damn screw to relieve mainspring pressure is missing. Not sure wth the last owner did with it. Sadly he has passed. If I just could find the length/thread/size I could create something to get the ball rolling. Perhaps I can get lucky and determine all that myself somehow.

Thanks again for the link.
 
Good morning Schick. A bit more info for you. Not sure if you already know this, but that little hammer "capture" screw may still be on your gun. If you remove the grips and look on the right side of the frame, right at the back (covered by the grip, normally) there should be a small machine screw - it's 5/64th dia. and it's 1/2" long. You take this out and this is what you screw into the hammer spring retainer, to "capture" it, after you've cocked the hammer. I should have remembered this - but you know - old ! If this screw is actually missing, then I guess you have some searching to do. It's a fairly fine thread, but it'll be a relatively common SAE thread - not British Whitworth, or somesuch.
BTW - the barrel/cylinder gap - once you're into the short strokes - is not "set in stone". I just watched a gun guy set his at .002" and he says he's happy with that. If I was setting mine that close, I'd be paying attention at the range, for any drag/contact, once the piece was warmed up.
 
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I have not worked on the 44, wish I had one to work on, but have played with the smaller frame 38's , and they are a piece of cake to work on.
I know on them , you use the screw like fire wall said. but these are 2 different actions.
I would spray more oil/ cleaner on the cylinder , yoke, old hard grease I would think.
If it has been sitting for yrs, and still as hell, I may be tempted to chuck the gun, minis grips in a can of varsol for a while.
 
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