No. 32 Mk.3 scope elevation & deflection drums are stuck.

My 1945 No.4(T) has been resting quietly in its transit chest for most of the past 40 years-- until last week when I decided to give it some serious exercise. The entire assemblage--rifle, telescope and mount-- are essentially new and unused, complete and matching, just as withdrawn from store in April 1963, according to the stenciling on the chest. It has been fired on two occasions during those years, each time just a few rounds only at relatively close range, mostly to test trigger pull and general functioning without any particular attention paid to accuracy. It was thereafter cleaned and put away. I have no reason to imagine that the elevation and deflection drums were disturbed.

Anyway, without thinking too much about it, I wiped out the bore, mounted the scope and proceeded to fire a few rounds to see how it would group at 175 yards. To my amazement I wasn't even on the paper. Only then did I look more closely and realized that the elevation setting was at "8". Feeling a bit silly, I thought: "Well, of course, you idiot", but then discovered that the drum would not rotate, at least not with my arthritic fingers. The deflection drum was correctly set at "0", so experimentally I tried moving that a click or two; it also would not budge.

At that point, being unfamiliar with the adjustment procedure, I stopped everything and consulted Peter Laidler's fine booklet on the No.32 scopes to study the exploded view and parts list. It appeared that whatever was wrong, it probably was not mechanically related to the lead screw and its locking nut (which I have not touched); moreover the drum and its knurled cover were separate parts held in unison only by friction. However, mine were locked solid, stubbornly resisting any movement individually or together.

Concluding that knowledge should be applied before force, I decided to ask. How should I proceed?

M

Setting that long the drums a seized. You need to have somebody familiar with these scopes to repair. May just be dried out lubrication however needs to be serviced so not to cause any damage. Where are you located? Sure someone here can direct you to such a person. Ron (Canada).

If the grease has hardened, perhaps gently warming the turrets with a hair dryer would be an option?

Do not applied heat to these. It will result in damage..... ie sagging crosshair...have seen this. The turrets need to be dismantled and cleaned. The ones I've done showed evidence of the greased/lubricant had solidified...adjusters were frozen Once cleaned, relubed and assembled all worked as they were designed. P Laidler has a great little book that describes the design, assembly, maintenance of the various models. Sure Peter will comment.

The drums are seized up solid and that's a sad fact of life. You COULD use the heat from your wife's hairdryer - but carefully. But I feel that if you just cure the sticking drum, the graticlke block will be jammed up by the same hardened grease that's sticking the turret. DON'T whatever you do try to turn the drum beyond slight thumb pressure because you will roll a small 10ba grub screw between the thumb=wheel and the inner spindle and that will effectively spend the end of the drum assembly.

If it was me I would unscrew the 4x turret retaining screws and lift off the turret and lift out the clicker plunger and spring (and keep it in a safe place because it WILL drop out later!). Now take the turret head apart as per the book. I can't elaborate any further because it took us months to learn about these things and while some of the many enthusiastic amateurs are more.............. Anyway, enough said!

Thank you all. For the time being, I'm just going to leave it alone.

M

Suggest you contact Brian Dick to discuss repairs if you are in the US.

If you can find it a product called DE-OX-ID from GC electronics should work .Use very sparingly. It actually helps reverse oxidation. I use it on battery terminals and volume controls that bind up between the aluminum sleeve and the brass shaft. A couple drops using a toothpick and rock back and forth until free.
Good luck
B















gc

The problem being described is the OTHER side of the waterproofing seal. That's where the foolhardy go wrong with various oil, degreasers etc etc. Spray this stuff on and it does nothing and goes nowhere - and then rock the drums. But they're just rocking the thumbwheel AND the 10BA grubscrew against the delicate brass inner spindle that ain't gonna turn..............., because it's jambed up internally, where the oil ain't got to!

Priceless advice from one who knows the ropes quite literally, ignore it at your own peril........

I suppose if you got the drums out you could remove the three screws that hold each of the index plates and put your super duper penetrant on the bottom of each drum "spindle" and see if you could free them off that way. If you don't put the little wee steel blocks back on the lead screws the same number of turns your zero will be wildly out and you will need to undo ye steel locking rings and turn the lead screw to something closer to zero. First make the tools...?

As one of the blessed amateurs I don't know whether the grat blocks also like to stick, but see no reason why they wouldn't given enough time, evaporation and oxidization. I'm guessing they were originally lubricated only with heavy oil as grease would perhaps if used in excess tend to get scraped off by the movement of the block and collect on the inside of the hole in the grat block the reticule sights through, perhaps impinging on the field of view? Beware of too much lubricant if doing a home refurb?

IIRC there is a single 10BA screw hole in the top side of the grat block to assist in removing it. A screw with the head cut off held in a pin vise might help remove the grat block if it will fit far enough into the scope to thread into the hole in the block.

I'll be corrected where wrong with these comments so some good will come of them! ;-)