[Mike Irwin]

And once again, I advise against trying to strip a Lightning or Thunderer.

Quite frankly, it's not a good idea to try shooting one, given the age, so a through strip and clean isn't all that necessary.

"Due to the intricacy of the lock mechanism of the Lightning Colt, specail care should be taken in disassembling to note the exact relative positions of all parts to facilitate correct reassembly."

That's from NRA's Firearems Asssembly guide.

Unfortunately, what that guide doesn't tell you is that with a couple of the parts there's no way to note their exact relative (if that isn't an oxymoron, I don't know what is) position because they're hidden by other parts, or by the frame.

Hell, the trigger alone has 9 separate parts, and that's the simple part of the assembly because it comes out in a single lump...

You have to hope, as you're disassembling it, that you don't knock something out of position elsewhere, or you get to play the "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! What the hell is this and where the hell does it go?" game.

Ask me how I know...