Lyman turret press ram too tight

[gambleone]

Stumped by this, but I have an older Lyman turret press that I took apart & cleaned & now is very tight on the last half of the
stroke. All I did was take the shell holder clip off to lower the ram out & wiped it down with brake cleaner. Applied bolt grease
& put it back in & was really way too tight. I took it out again & cleaned buffed it very lightly, put it in & still the same.
When I try to push the ram up by hand, it starts sticking half way up. What am I missing here?

 

[gotcha]

Did you remove the cross pin at bottom of Ram? The resistance might be coming from linkage misalignment on re-assembly ? I'd start by applying a liberal dose of penetrating fluid to the raised ram. Let it set overnight and see if the Ram frees up. I find that Kroil applied to the raised Ram will flush the built up crud from removing spent primers. I wouldn't use grease on the Ram as it tends to trap the primer residue generated from this type of Press. Hope this solves your problem

 

[gambleone]

No, I didn't remove any pins. I will soak it in kroil overnight
& see what happens. Thank you for your help.
Greg

 

[Lapua40X]

I'm not sure what Lyman family press you have ... but be sure the primer exit slot is toward the front of the ram. If not, you can rotate the ram 180 degrees from it's current alignment you might find some relief.

 

[gambleone]

It is the older Lyman orange turret press. The primer exit slot is facing toward the front.
When I start the ram from the bottom, it goes in fine until it reaches about 1/2 stroke, then immediately
gets very tight all the way up. It doesn't matter if I use the handle or just push it straight up from the bottom,
by hand, it still sticks the same. Any other suggestions? I'm stumped...

 

[Lapua40X]

Sounds to me like a runout issue. Do you have a lathe or other device that you can use to check runout. If nothing else, a good carpenter's square with a good strong light behind it does a fairly good job as a straight edge to check runout.

 

[hotrodlouie]

If you didn't have a problem before disassemble the grease you used might have had a little piece of trash and the caused a burr in the bore. Try a piece of 600 wet/dry sand paper with a wood dowel and past down the bore and check the ram for marks were it could be binding.

 

[gotcha]

Gambleone, Making any progress yet?................I'm thinking that a small shard of cartridge brass may have dropped into the spent primer slot when you removed the S/H clip. Then was ironed onto the bore or Ram. Just a S.W.A.G. ??? Maybe a little JB's worked into the bore would remove if this is the case? Maybe applying JB's to the Ram and working it up and down a bit would do the trick? ....... Just trying to imagine some possibilities here. Dale

 

[tomon]

primer and powder residue mixing with the grease you applied may be grabbing. Try cleaning the lube totally off again.

 

[gambleone]

I soaked it in kroil all night. I will take it apart & look at it again. Will let you
know. Thanks for all your help.

 

[gambleone]

Well, it's fixed. After I read the 1st post about taking out the cross pin, I had it in the back of my mind.
After messing with it for 3 days, I unbolted it from the bench so I could hold it upside down. I put the ram in & it went up just to where the cross pin is in the bottom of the ram. Looking at the cross pin & it's not protruding on either end. Then the light came on... When I first took the ram out, I got a pin & was going to drive the cross pin out. I hit it 2 or 3 times & seeing it was so tight, I thought, I don't need to take the pin out. Well, I miked the ram above the cross pin, then miked the bottom under the cross pin, & you guessed, it was out. Never thought I could have caused that by tapping that pin. I didn't have a solid setup under the ram & when I tapped it, the bottom ear of the ram moved just enough to bind. Works like new again.
Thanks for your help & hope you all have a Happy New Year.
Greg