SBH cylinder shimming question

my SBH has a little cylinder end shake i'd like to shim. once shimmed what keeps it in place when taking the cylinder out for cleaning? when shaking my sbh to and fro it makes a little tapping noise from the cylinder moving, how much shake would be ok for a single action? thanks

Since the shims are nothing more than very thin washers,, When you remove the cylinder, they too come out, and you have to re-install them each time.
As for "how much endshake," is ok,, well, that's a bit subjective. You want the cylinder to move freely, and also reduce the movement when firing. It's often a trial & error process to find out exactly what is the "sweet spot" for proper function & performance.

If your cyl makes a little tapping sound when shaking it back and forth, that's a bit too much cyl "end play" or "end shake", i.e., shortness of the cyl gas ring. But is yours a problem, not really. Will it become a problem, maybe after another 4,000 rds of 44 Mag. Is it annoying, yes!

Shims are a pain for Rugers because there's no place to retain them except by the cyl pin. Colts with removable cyl pin bushings retain them between the bushing and the hole in the cyl for the bushing. You can try crazy glueing the shim to the front of the cyl gas ring.

This thread describes ways to fix it, mentions shims:
http://www.rugerforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=293569

I'd actually measure the end shake rather than guess at what it is by shaking or pushing back and forth. You're going to have to measure to know what size shim you need anyway, if you even need a shim.

You can't buy just one shim, so you don't really need to know that, just try shims until the play is gone. The shim size or sum of the sizes of the shims will tell you what it measured!

If you have play that you want to eliminate, you need a shim or some other form of mitigation.

I'm using a .002 shim from Triggershims.com on one of my SBH's. You need to
remember you have it installed before you pull the cylinder, otherwise they
disappear pretty easily. Also, I had one burn up pretty quickly when shooting
heavy loads using 296 or 2400 powder.

Shawn

my shims are in todays mail. nice company.

Hondo44 said:

You can't buy just one shim, so you don't really need to know that, just try shims until the play is gone. The shim size or sum of the sizes of the shims will tell you what it measured!

If you have play that you want to eliminate, you need a shim or some other form of mitigation.

Click to expand...

Why even mess with shims if you don't know it's a problem? You can't tell it's out of spec by "feel." I wasn't suggesting to measure to know what size shim to use.

End play is a problem, from small to large and yes of course you can feel it. So why measure it at all?

"I wasn't suggesting to measure to know what size shim to use."
You sure posted that you did in your above post: "You're going to have to measure to know what size shim you need anyway, if you even need a shim."

For a small amount of end play, you can also use a pointed punch on the ratchet teeth or the front gas ring to make dimples that will tighten up the space.