Crane lock and endshake

I recently acquired my first Colt revolver, Pawnshop Find, and as you can tell from my posts there, I knew nothing about these fine older handguns. Thanks to this forum, I have been learning a lot, and I thank you all for that. I have picked up a copy of Jerry Kuhnhausen's shop manual based on your recommendations.

I have been particularly interested in the threads concerning cylinder timing and endshake. I discovered something with my Army Special that I haven't seen mentioned in any of the threads I found about endshake. The crane to frame gap was perfect but the crane had some noticeable fore and aft play in the frame. I noticed that the crane lock had a significant half circle wear pattern where it bears against the crane to retain it in the frame. The endshake measurements at the barrel cylinder gap were 0 with the cylinder pushed forward and .010 when pushed backward. I figured that replacing the lock would have to improve on that, so I ordered a replacement from Numrich Gun Parts (along with a cylinder hand for stretching). After installing the new lock, I now get .002 forward and .008 pushed to the rear. I realize that this is still too much of a difference to meet Colt's specs, but from what I've read in some posts, it's not that unusual.

Where the cylinder would loosely flop in and out before, it now feels a lot better fitted. I would suggest that this be checked before trying to address endshake issues. I think I know why the barrel had been replaced on this revolver: it had been used a lot! Perhaps this condition is unusual for most guns, but I think it says a lot about the overall quality of these older Colts.