[kis2]

ok, so i disassembled my brand new yugo sks, cleaned all the packaging goo off of everything using warm water with a little dish soap, including the gas chamber stuff and all the springs. i went down to the firing range and im having some issues. fires great, hits accurately, but i cant get consistent semi auto action.

im using a different magazine, but its only ten rounds. later in the day it would go a good four rounds without having to cock it back and eject the shell, but early in the day it was every shot.

what do you guys think? do i need to make sure i cleaned something again? do you think its just a matter of breaking in the gun? or maybe did i put a spring in backwards (is that possible?)

thanks for your help guys, great tips from my last post
kis2

[kis2]

in case you were curious, i was using an ammo called "pmc". fmj. and i havent had too much trouble finding different brands available to order online.

[Czar]

Does your Yugo have the grenade launcer rear sight?

If so, make sure it is folded down, and the "button" which retains the sight is fully engaged to the right hand side of the rifle.

This "button" is your gas shut-off to the action and when it is engaged on the top of the rifle, the gas is off.

If that's not the problem, you may have some cosmoline still in there. Not alot to do there but elbow grease it out. Keep :banghead: and you'll figure everything out. It took me a little bit to get used to my Yugo SKS, but now I have it fairly clean and it works like a champ.

Good luck!

[Black Snowman]

For hard to reach spots I found Break Free Powder Blasts desolves cosmoline better than thought possible. After wiping things out well and scrubbing a bit the Powder Blast washed out a ton of cosmo in all the little nooks, crannies, and holes. I recommend it highly.

[kfranz]

Install the factory mag first. That'll rule out a mag related problem, which is as often as not the cause of problems for slr's.

[Ohen Cepel]

Does it have the issue 10rd mag? If not, the mag might be the issue. I have found SKS's to get great results with the 10rd fixed mag, but iffy with aftermarket extended mags.

Also, make sure the bolt it REAL clean. I had a mauser recently that I "thought" I had cleaned the bolt well enough on. However, the grease was still think inside it and it gave me light stikes. After a complete take down and thorough cleaning no more issues.

[browningguy]

Does not sound like a mag or ammo problem. Clean it with the proper tools, warm water and soap will move the cosmoline around, maybe even get it off in the open spots, but will definately not clean the gun.

Breakfree, brake cleaner, gumout, serious chemicals of some sort are called for to get cosmoline out of the works. If you take it apart now you'll probably find some very light yellowish colored streaks, that's the cosmo that's still hiding everywhere. I have had the best luck with Gun Scrubber, hose all the parts downs with it, let it dry for 1-2 minutes, then hose them down some more, put the whole firing pin/bolt assy. in a little bucket and cover it with the chemical of your choice, move it around in there a bit. Then after an hour of enjoying the chemicals you'll be able to shoot it as designed. I suggest long sleeves, gloves and eye protection with the Gun Scrubber, it can tingle pretty good when you leave it on bare skin for a few minutes.

[MechAg94]

Mineral spirits will get the cosmoline out as well if you can submerge the parts. I used it on my bolt.

On the problems, what sort of "semi-auto action" problems were you having? Failure to feed?, failure to eject?, etc...

[Limeyfellow]

It sounds like the valve is dirty and blocking it from cycling properly. You need some better stuff to clean it. At the minimum use really hot water and you can use some breakfree or other good cleaner to get the junk out.

If its still not cycling properly you might have a bad valve in there. In that case you can buy a new one for $15-25, including stainless steel ones that are slightly longer to create a tighter seal.

[kis2]

to reply to one question, the problem i was having early on was that it wouldnt eject the shell, at all. i had to pull it back to eject. later on in the day, it would once in a while eject it far enough to jam. after that it would eject more than half a clip fine.

WHAT ABOUT this degreaser stuff i have called "awesome". its an ethanol base and it evaporates pretty quick, but it works like a charm on grease and stuff. its supposedly safe on just about anything but glass. would that be suitable for cleaning the cosmo out?

[mljdeckard]

I mentioned in a thread recently, I took a neglected one from a friend of mine, and not only was the valve shut, he had never pulled out the piston, and it was still covered with cosmoline. I gloated when I told him that if he had cleaned it like I told him to when he first bought it, it would have worked fine. :)

[ball3006]

either by dirt, cosmoline, or the gas shutoff valve is in the wrong position. Pull the gas tube off and clean the port in the barrel with a pipe cleaner soaked in bore cleaner. Did you check to see if there is any cosmoline in the short gas piston under the rear sight?.......chris3

[gereg]

I have peddled about 150 Yugo M59/66's over the last 3 years and have heard of 2 rifles I sold with malfunctions identical to yours.

One of the rifles had a burr in the gas port...like the hole was never completely bored through. Running a drill through it (carefully so as not to scar the inside of the barrel) fixed it.

The other was eventually fixed by cutting coils one at a time from the recoil spring. I don't recall how many were removed before the rifle started to function reliably.

[Arkie]

What I have read and also done to my sks is clean it with Brake Cleaner, the cheap stuff.

It will take all the oil and gunk out of every place and will not leave any residue at all. Does not hurt the bluing at all.