Disassembly and Reassembly Of the Ruger LCR Revolver

Once a year, manufacturers, distributors, dealers and a large assortment of media types fill a huge space to display, discuss, and place orders for anything and everything even remotely connected with the shooting sports and law enforcement. It’s called the Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trades Show, or simply SHOT. Upwards of 40,000 people walk the long aisles of the cavernous exhibit hall over a four-day period to discover what’s what with firearms and what’s new.

In the "what’s new" category, gunmakers compete for one or more of the prestigious "Shooting Industry Academy of Excellence" gun-of-the-year awards in several categories. In 2008, Ruger’s LCP (Light Carry Pistol), reported on in the September 08 issue, walked off with the handgun award. And in 2009, the Ruger LCR (Light Carry Revolver) has been nominated in the handgun category, but we’ll have to wait until January to see if this little hammerless double-action revolver makes it two-in-a-row for the Ruger line.

The LCR’s light weight (under a pound) comes from a frame made of aluminum alloy and afire-control system made of glass-fiber-reinforced nylon. The cylinder and barrel are of stainless steel. The frame has a flatblack coating that works with the aluminum substrate to provide corrosion and abrasive resistance exceeding Mil-A-8625F. The stainless-steel cylinder and barrel have been tumbled to a semi-gloss gray finish.

If the frame suffers an impact scar or wear spot, the damage can be touched up with an aluminum-blackening compound such as the one sold by Birchwood Casey. The LCP is chambered for .38 Special and .38 Special +P. Field Stripping By now you may have noticed the four schematics here instead of the usual one. The primary LCR exploded view shows the overall relationships of the revolvers’ subassemblies.

The other three schematics are of those sub-assemblies, which are the fire- If it wins, it would join the company’s LCP (Light Carry Pistol), which won the 2008 award. control housing, the cylinder, and the frame. Referring to the first exploded view, you’ll see that the Hogue grip (#4) is shown. The screw attaching it to the fire-control housing is not shown, but it can be found under the grip frame of the fire-control housing. Back out the screw and slide the grip down and off the housing.

This will expose a portion of the mainspring and its seat in the internal lock located in the lower right of the housing. (Never, under any circumstance, remove the internal lock from the revolver.) That’s it. The revolver is field

stripped. Now swing open the cylinder and it’s ready for basic cleaning. But wait a minute, I’m going to have to take exception to one of the instructions in the owner’s manual about cleaning the barrel. It says to insert a rod with patch attached from "muzzle to breech." I have never swabbed, brushed, or patched a barrel in any way except from breech to muzzle. How is that possible in this case? There are two ways, actually.

The first method is to insert a plastic or plastic-coated rod in the muzzle until its threaded end reaches the middle of the cylinder opening in the frame. Attach the slotted accessory tip with the patch installed to the rod. Apply a polymer-safe cleaning sol- The internal lock (A) blocks the hammer when engaged, rendering the gun impossible to fire. vent to the patch and pull it out the muzzle.

On badly fouled barrels, substitute a bore brush for the slotted accessory tip and scrub from breech to muzzle without completely pulling out the brush. Then switch to the slotted tip and keep running patches until one comes out clean. Remove the slotted tip, reinsert the rod, apply gun oil to the patch, Aattach it to the rod, and pass it through the barrel two or three times. The second method is easier than using a rigid rod.

It employs the plastic-coated flexible aircraft-control cables included with the Otis Technologies cleaning kits (available from Brownells). These also make cleanup of lever-action rifles less of ahead-

Ruger LCR Double-Action Revolver (Specifications subject to change without notice) 1 Frame Subassembly 2 Fire Control Housing Nut 3 Fire Control Housing Subassembly 4 Hogue Grip (including screw) 5 Fire Control Housing Screw 6 Cylinder/Crane Assembly 7 Crane Pivot Screw ache, because you don’t have to dismantle the receiver to get at the cable and attach whatever tip is appropriate.

Perhaps I’m being too fussy about cleaning from breech to muzzle, but I’ve run many pistol and rifle matches and have never seen a serious competitor going at a gun from its business end. Anyway, if removing the grip is all there is to field stripping the LCR, how do you lube it without taking it down further? Answer: Open the cylinder and support the frame between two wooden blocks thick enough to keep the open cylinder above your bench top.

Then gently push down on the hammer-pivot pin with a 1/8-inch or smaller punch until the large head of the pawl pin (#10) clears its cutout. (See drawings on page 4.) Apply two or three drops of polymer-safe gun oil in the pin hole as shown in the drawing. Let it drain down into the action. Rotating the large head of the hammer-pivot pin will encourage distribution of the lube.

When you are reasonably certain the oil has been disbursed, align the hammer-pivot head with its recess and reseat it through the fire-control housing. Close the cylinder, dry fire the LCR as many as ten times to further lubricate the action, and wipe off any excess oil from both sides of the hammer pivot pin. The drawing says to tighten the crane-pivot screw to 23 to 27 inch/ pounds of torque when reinstalling the crane and its retaining screws.

If you don’t have a torque wrench, hand tighten both screws, but be careful to avoid stripping out their heads. Detailed Disassembly To get at the subassemblies, look at the exploded view and find the firecontrol housing screw (#5) and the crane-pivot screw (#7). Back them out with a T10 Torx driver or wrench and place both in a magnetic parts tray. You may have to give the housing screw a nudge to the right after it disengages its nut (#2).

Don’t lose the nut; it’s likely to fall off the housing when the screw is loosened. From here on, check the individual subassembly schematics for parts identification. Hold the frame and housing in one hand. Remove the cylinder assembly toward the muzzle. Switch hand positions. Hold the housing and trigger in one hand without allowing the trigger to return forward from its "at rest" position. Grasp the frame with your free hand and use a finger to depress the cylinder latch (#7) as far as you can into the frame.

Keep the downforce on the latch while you pivot the barrel upward to about the level of the housing-screw hole. Since the fire-control housing overlaps the frame tightly, you may encounter some resistance to this rotation. When the barrel has reached an upward attitude of 15 degrees or so, pull up and forward to separate the frame from the housing. Try to use the built-in rear curvature of the frame to achieve this divorce.

The transfer bar (#11) often falls out immediately after the frame and housing are separated. If you feel anything "catching" during the parting, it’s likely to be the pawl. Resolve the problem by reversing yourself and moving the trigger back and forth slightly. (Did I mention that the "pawl" in all Ruger revolvers is called the "hand" in most other revolvers?) If the transfer bar hasn’t escaped, make certain it’s nested under the front edge of the hammer face.

In case it isn’t, pull back the hammer a little bit to position it there. Release the ham-

Frame Subassembly 1 Barrel, .38+P 2 Front Latch Cap 3 Front Latch Spring 4 Front Latch Pin 5 Front Sight 6 Front Sight Cross Pin 7 Frame Sub-Assembly 8 Firing Pin Bushing* 9 Firing Pin Spring 10 Firing Pin 11 Firing Pin Plug 12 Crane Release Retaining Screw amount of heat. Backing out the plug will require you to fabricate a spanner. This will resemble the wrench mer and the LCR has been reduced to its primary components.

Detailed Disassembly Of the Primary Components Refer to the frame-subassembly drawing for this step. The barrel (#1) is threaded at its front, and retains the front latch cap (#2), the cap spring (#3), and its pin (#4). The barrel can’t be removed without special tooling. This tooling may or may not be made available by Ruger at some future date. For now, the cap and its associated parts have to remain where they are.

The firing-pin plug (#11) is secured with a mild thread-locking compound that can be defeated with only a small The transfer bar (D) often drops out at this stage of disassembly. used to tighten or take out the spikes from golf shoes. Depending on the width of the part to be spanned, a suitable spanning tool can be made by notching a screwdriver blade to resemble a two-prong table fork. Once the plug is no longer blocking them, the firing pin (#10) and its spring (#9) come out the rear.

The firingpin bushing (#8) is pressed in and should not be disturbed. Now give your attention to the frame-subassembly schematic. A thin-blade screwdriver will undo the crane-release screw (#12). This frees the crane-release button (#13), its plunger spring (#14), and plunger (#15), which normally remains within the button. The front sight (#5) is secured by a roll pin (#6).

It can be drifted in either direction. 13 Crane Release Button 14 Release Button Plunger Spring 15 Release Button Plunger *must be factory fitted. Now switch over to the fire-control housing schematic. The trigger pin (#13) and cylinder-latch pin (#8) are solid and identical. Drift out the latch pin, push the latch (#7) forward and out of the housing. The latch spring

(#6) shouldn’t fly away. If it does, and you find it, the spring centers on a pin within the latch. Drift out the trigger pin. Move the entire trigger group (#11 through 16) forward, upward and out of the firecontrol housing. Push the hammer pivot (#10) out to the left. Lift the complete hammer assembly (#1 through 5) from the housing. This assembly is made to specifications that allow it to be interchangeable with any LCR. The same is true of the trigger group.

Both are available from Ruger only as complete subassemblies. So, if your customer suffers from the common tendency to mess around with triggers, you’ll want to examine the parts relationships inside the trigger group in detail. Special attention should be given the trigger spring (#15), its bushing (#14), the transfer bar (#12), and pawl (#11). Assuming no part has been damaged, you should be able to put this back together and put a smile back on the distraught owner’s face.

Returning to the hammer assembly, take note of the mainspring seat (#5) at its bottom end. What you’re looking at rests inside a dedicated pocket atop the locking mechanism. If you keep the housing tilted to the left while working with it, the mainspring seat will not fall out. When engaged, the mechanism blocks the hammer strut. If this mechanism is tampered with or removed, the LCR becomes a paperweight.

On the subject of the mainspring, you’ll be pleased to note that the LCR’s mainspring falls far short of equaling the strength of the like-named springs you’ve struggled with in other Ruger revolvers. The hammer-strut pin (#2) is shaped like a dog biscuit or a dumbbell, and is not press fit. When under spring tension, the upper lug of the hammer strut (#3) is prevented from popping out due to the odd shape of the pin.

Now let’s switch to the (continued on page 13) Fire-Control Housing Subassembly 1 Hammer Subassembly 2 Hammer Strut Pin 3 Hammer Strut 4 Mainspring 5 Mainspring Seat 6 Cylinder Latch Spring 7 Cylinder Latch 8 Trigger/Cylinder Latch Pivot Pin 9 Fire Control Housing/Lock Subassembly 10 Hammer Pivot Pin 11 Pawl 12 Transfer Bar 13 Trigger/Latch Pivot Pin 14 Trigger Spring Bushing 15 Trigger Return Spring 16 Trigger Cylinder Subassembly 1 Ejector Extension 2 Lock Pin Spring 3 Lock Pin Extension 4 Center Lock Pin 5 Crane 6 Ejector Spring Bushing 7 Ejector Spring 8 Cylinder Sub-Assembly 9 Ejector

cylinder-subassembly schematic. If it looks familiar it should. The LCR setup is very similar to that of the older Ruger Security Six, the typical S&W, and Taurus revolvers. Start the takedown with the ejector extension (#1). This has a left-handed thread and unscrews clockwise from the lockpin extension (#3) to which it’s secured with low-strength thread-locking compound. You’ll need no heat to defeat the compound if you grasp the ejector extension between padded vise jaws.

This is smart thinking on the part of the gun’s designer, because just aft of the ejector extension is the lock-pin spring (#2), and you know what a little too much heat can do to the integrity of a spring. The pin spring is followed off the subassembly by the extension and center lock pin (#4). This leaves the crane (#5), ejector-spring bushing (#6), and ejector spring (#7) still in the cylinder (#8). Withdraw them. Swivel the cylinder around to its rear end, and grasp and pull out the extractor (#9).

By this time, you’ve realized you’ve been working with some very small parts. They all belong in the magnetic parts tray until you need them for reassembly. This is accomplished by reversing the steps just taken to disassemble the cylinder subassembly. Reassembly Tips Make sure the transfer bar nests under the front ledge of the hammer in the fire-control housing. The trigger-return spring must have its long leg in the pawl groove. To be sure it does, you have to be able to see into the trigger.

Line up the pivot hole of the crane on the cylinder subassembly and the crane-pivot hole in the frame before fully installing the crane-pivot pin. Close the cylinder and install the cylinder lock. Hold the Ruger’s cylinder/frame assembly in one hand and the firecontrol housing in the other. Double check the position of the trigger spring. Hold the frame at a 15-degree muzzleup angle and note the tab at the frame’s rear. Align the tab with the upper "ears" of the fire-control housing and make contact with them.

Rotate the frame down and back, using its contour in the same manner as in disassembly until it is fully seated in the fire-control housing. The crane screw can be pushed forward during this move. Tighten the crane screw as tight as you can by hand. Then check the gun’s function. Reinsert the retaining-screw nut into the hexagonal recess for it on the right-hand side. Insert the retaining screw from the left and tighten it with a Torx driver until the nut seems to be "biting" into the polymer.

Whether it walks off with the 2009 Handgun of the Year or not, don’t be surprised if a profitable number of LCR cleaning jobs come your way. Ruger has a winner here for any civilian with a concealed-carry permit or any law-enforcement officer desiring a potent back-up. I