CDH,
If you don't have the proper tool for the job do yourself a favor and take your revolver to someone that does. If you snap the ejector rod off inside the cylinder it can be a major pain in the ASS. I don't care how tight a grip you think you have on the damn thing , you're gonna either mar it or break it. Jim

Point well taken, and I have been accused of being overly anal about cleaning my guns before, but done properly and well I think it will not appreciably shorten the life of them. The key is gently and properly...

I usually use a 200 round gauge...i.e. bore and surface cleaning below 200 rounds, disassembly after. It is just soooo much easier to clean the buildup in the cylinder with it removed, and hoppes runs under the ejector star so badly, I feel compelled to clean it out. I have seen Hoppes gum up stuff before...like my 870 during dove season!

I just don't feel comfortable relying on a dirty gun.

Here's my method. Remove the cylinder & yoke. Remove the cylinder from the yoke. Place the extractor rod into a lead padded vice and tighten. Heavy leather may work as well if you don't have lead vice jaws. You want it tight enough to not spin but not crush it. That's what the lead jaws do for you. Grip the cylinder and tighten it on the extractor rod. Use caution to turn the cylinder without putting side pressure. You don't want to bend the rod. It's not that fragile, but it can be bent.

The trick here is to grip & turn the largest diameter portion, the cylinder, instead of the smallest diameter piece, the extractor rod. It a large diameter screwdriver handle vs. a small one.

That's unusual for a gun that late. That ejector rod should have a left hand thread.



Still, it does need to be tightened with pliers to a snug fit and loctited (blue). Brownell's used to carry pliers that were built to fit the ejector rod. You can also use regular pliers lined with lead or leather or a regular machinist vise with lined jaws. Don't over tighten, just snug.



When you tighten the ejector rod, be sure to insert a couple of empties into the cylinder. Otherwise, you are putting a lot of pressure on those two little alignment pins in the cylinder.

Brownells sells a nifty little clamp that won't mar the surface. I made one using a hardwood block that I just grab in the vise. Fill the chambers with unloaded cases before tightening (Brownells sells a tool for this also).
As I recall these are left-hand threaded?
C.G.B.

Any pistolsmiths in the house???

It is very annoying, but since this isn't a carry gun it isn't critical (yet). Pretty much every time I do a thorough cleaning (pretty much after every range session), for the first 8-10 cylinder loads, the threaded rod one pushes to unload the cylinder (don't know the technical term) unscrewes itself. If I forget to tighten it after every reload in 2-3 sets it loosens itself enough to make opening the cylinder hard to near impossible. It seems slightly worse with full house .357 loads, but .38's will do it too.

I hate to use loctite, as I usually disassemble it to aid in cleaning.

I hate to use pliers to torque it down, due to wear and scratching the knurling on the rod's end.

Finger tight, even with strong fingers, isn't tight enough.

Any suggestions? Thanks!