New Army & Navy DA 38, is it worth fixing?

[notjustsomeone]

So, I picked up a New Army & Navy as a "parts gun" for pretty much nothing. It needs a couple small parts replaced that won't be too difficult to make myself, but the real problem seems to be that when the trigger is released the hand drags down across the ratchet and the cylinder rotates with it. Does anyone know how to fix this?

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[twaits]

Sounds like one of they cylinder stops isn't working properly.
This is what it looks like inside if you haven't had the sideplate off yet. As you can see from these pictures my hand spring is not quite right. I either need a new one or need to get the proper bend in this one to make it work. Sorry my pics of the stop area aren't better.

[twaits]

Here's a better one that COLTDAGUY posted for me. You may want to look for a broken or improperly installed cylinder stop spring. I have never pulled either of my early colt DAs apart so I don't know exactly whats involved. But there are plenty of people here that can help I'm sure.

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[notjustsomeone]

Thanks, I found the problem. The center post on the latch is a bit worn down and wasn't putting enough pressure on the ratchet. So I filed a little more clearance for the pin and that fixed the problem, everything's fairly tight now.

One problem solved, another noticed. The timing is off when the gun is cocked single action. For some reason when pulling the trigger back to use the gun in double action the cylinder lines up perfect but when you pull back the hammer to cock it as single action it just barely doesn't rotate enough to correctly line up. Would anyone have some insight into this?

[twaits]

My nickel 1892 has the same problem. I think the hand or the ratchet is just worn. I've decided to just leave mine alone. If it's cocked fast it lines up okay and always lines up when the trigger is pulled. And in DA as you said with yours it always lines up. I've never fired it and if I do it will be with black powder cartridges (gun was made in 1894 or 95 I think) and probably only once. A new cylinder hand might solve the problem. I believe that COLTDAGUY got one from numrich arms.
Oh for what it's worth I really like your gun! Its very much like my nickeled one:

[dfariswheel]

That would probably be the hand that advances the cylinder.
In more modern Colt's the hand can be stretched ONE TIME to lengthen it.

This is done on the newer models with a 1/2" chisel with the face ground flat and very smooth and the edges and corners rounded slightly with a stone.
On the newer model Colt's the hand is stretched on the inside of the hand with the chisel in the slot near the bottom, NOT near the top.

I'm just not up on the New Army & Navy repairs, but if the hand is stretched to repair timing, the hand is put on a steel bench block on a FIRM bench and the chisel is positioned in the inside slot of the hand. The hammer is used to carefully peen the hand to stretch it slightly.
This is done ONLY if the hand is within range that stretching can be done, and with the understanding that hands DO crack and break during this.
After stretching the hand is carefully stoned to remove most of the marks left by the chisel.

Finally, take note that these guns were chambered for the .38 Colt Long, NOT the .38 Special. You can use .38 Special brass to hand load very low power loads, and for best accuracy, over-sized bullets to fit the larger bore of these guns.