velocette
Member
Old well worn Colt. Taking the advice of many on this forum, I decided to proceed with attending to the old pony's ills. Following a thorough cleaning & exterior inspection I chose to bite the bullet & disassemble the revolver to clean and lubricate its internal workins. (The exterior was only cleaned & lightly polished as suggested by others.)
Pulled out my old NRA book on firearms disassembly, I found 3 pages devoted to a Police Positive. Included was an illustrated parts breakdown, .Following the directions, I removed the crane / cylinder assembly & left it aside (the book warned not to disassemble it) then pulled off the grips and side plate using the correct screwdrivers. The internal parts were dry as expected and had dirt & some corrosion. They are all clean and corrosion free now, all parts are oiled and or greased as appropriate. The revolvers action is smooth, the lockup tight as in not moving with trigger pulled. Barrel / cylinder gap is a snug 0.008".
The interesting thing is the mechanical beauty of the machining & fit of all the parts. There are many more parts to this Colt than any Smith or Ruger I have had apart. It appears that Colt used two parts where other use just one and Colt fitted them very tightly.
A good example would be the crane retaining hardware. Smith & Wesson uses a simple screw with a properly sized round tip to retain the crane. This Colt uses a fitted, machined plug retained by a fitted machined screw that fits into a slot machined in the plugs side. Two machined parts, two machined holes in the frame where others use one hole and a screw.
Now if it ever stops raining and my club re-opens following renovations, I'll discover how well this old law enforcement sixgun will perform, AND I promise not to defund it!
Pulled out my old NRA book on firearms disassembly, I found 3 pages devoted to a Police Positive. Included was an illustrated parts breakdown, .Following the directions, I removed the crane / cylinder assembly & left it aside (the book warned not to disassemble it) then pulled off the grips and side plate using the correct screwdrivers. The internal parts were dry as expected and had dirt & some corrosion. They are all clean and corrosion free now, all parts are oiled and or greased as appropriate. The revolvers action is smooth, the lockup tight as in not moving with trigger pulled. Barrel / cylinder gap is a snug 0.008".
The interesting thing is the mechanical beauty of the machining & fit of all the parts. There are many more parts to this Colt than any Smith or Ruger I have had apart. It appears that Colt used two parts where other use just one and Colt fitted them very tightly.
A good example would be the crane retaining hardware. Smith & Wesson uses a simple screw with a properly sized round tip to retain the crane. This Colt uses a fitted, machined plug retained by a fitted machined screw that fits into a slot machined in the plugs side. Two machined parts, two machined holes in the frame where others use one hole and a screw.
Now if it ever stops raining and my club re-opens following renovations, I'll discover how well this old law enforcement sixgun will perform, AND I promise not to defund it!
