Putting my 686 back together again...

Status
Not open for further replies.

brockgl

Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2008
Messages
169
Okay, I took apart my 686 6" tonight for 2 reasons. 1: I wanted to remove the internal lock, and 2: I wanted to shine up my hammer and trigger with some Mother's Mag and Mother's Billet polish. Here are some pictures, and then I'll get to my question.

before_after_trig_ham.jpg


nightstand_2.jpg


My question is: How do I know for sure that I put it back together right? I am fairly mechanically inclined; I work on computers all day as a depot technician so I am use to being gentle and working with very tiny parts. The gun dry fires flawlessly in every position: forward, straight up, upside down, etc... I pretty much took the entire gun apart. The trigger assembly, the hammer, the cylinder were all laid out on a workspace.

I accomplished what I needed to. The lock was removed, and the trigger and hammer got shined. Anything specific to look for? Or should I be good to go?
 
You can always pull a few bullets apart and fire a few primer poppers if you want to make sure everything is where it should be.

Sounds as if you did a careful job of it, you should be fine.
 
Unload the gun, cock the hammer and drop a pencil down the bore eraser end first.

Aim the gun upward and pull the trigger. If the pencil jumps out of the barrel you've now got a pretty good warm fuzzy that the gun will fire when you want it to.

From there it's just a matter of checking to see if the cylinder indexes as it should when the trigger is pulled DA.
 
Are you sure the before and after is correct? Thats a nice looking gun!

Rofl, nope! I put the pictures in backwards! lol, I'm not feeling that good tonight and didn't even pay attention. Gonna fix it now
 
You can always pull a few bullets apart and fire a few primer poppers
It very likely won't work if you do that.

The primers will back out, and with no pressure to re-seat them, the cylinder won't want to turn.

If you put the hammer block safety bar, and the firing pin back in, it is assembled correctly. There is no "incorrect" way to put a S&W back together and still get it to work DA/SA.

rcmodel
 
Yup. Need to enlarge the primer flash hole if you fire primered only cases. Do the function test. Pull single action trigger with pencil in bore. DO NOT aim at the dog. The pencil will shoot out. Next do a safety function test. Pencil in bore, single action cocked hammer again, trip the trigger, do not pull it all the way. Tap it with something to get it to trip. Drop safety should engage and not let the hammer fall forward to hit the pencil.
 
The sme could also be done by pulling the trigger and thumbing the hammer down and releasing the trigger before you thumb the hammer all of the way down. The drop safety should still engage and not let the hammer go all the way forward.
 
Thanks RC, that did not occur to me. With an auto there isn't that little bit of slop for the primer to back into. Live and learn.
 
Awesome responses, thanks a lot! I did the pencil trick 7 or 8 times and it shot up at the ceiling. And I also lowered the hammer and let go of the trigger before it reached the firing pin and the firing pin never engaged. Thanks a lot. That is probably the only time I'll eve rhave to take the side of my gun.
 
I only removed the flag. I didn't remove the keyhole thing, so there was no hole created, only a small slot to the left of the hammer which on the 686 is hardly noticeable. I also removed the lock from my 642 the same way. The good thing about the 642 is, since the hammer is enclosed, there is no slot made next to the hammer. I just left the "mole" in place. I see no reason to remove it; the look of it doesn't really bother me.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top