[saands]

I posted a while back about a Yugo SKS that starts to field strip itself after about 2 shots ... what happens is that the gas tube lever comes out of its detent and goes to "gas tube removal" position (up close to 90 degrees). I got around to looking at the gas tube and compared it to the tube on my Romanian SKS. The Yugo is on the left in the picture attached to this post. Now I have a few questions:

1. Does anyone know where to get a yugo gas tube?
2. The Romanian tube seems to fit ... but it obviously doesn't have the yugo flange at the muzzle end. Can any of the tubes work on the yugo sks?
3. Can anyone think of why this might actually be causing the "self field strip" behavior?

Thanks ...

Saands

[Illuminate]

My SKS's gas tube lever is very hard to move, you almost have to get on gloves to get the thing in the up position. Is yours this way? Just bend the thing if you can to get it to grip to the little detent grooves in the metal.

As for the whole new tube thing, you've got me there.

[saands]

It seems that there must be a large number of SKS's out there with gas tube levers that are very weakly held in place, because that is what everyone says to check. For the record, the lever on my problematic 59/66 is SO tight that it requires a screwdriver to get it out of the detent ... since I can easily move the well functioning Romanian's lever without tools, I really think that there is a fundamental problem with some OTHER part of my Yugo's gas system.

No one know if the normal tubes work on a yugo? I was thinking that it would be nice to swap out the tube from the Romanian and see if the problem goes away.

TIA,
Saands

[bbrins]

The regular SKS gas tube will fit in the Yugoslavian SKS with a little bit of filing to the gas shut off block, just enough so that it fits snug. Or, TAPCO sells a new Yugo gas tube, but it has the black plastic handguard.
tapco.com (http://www.tapco.com/product_information.asp?number=ZSKS6602&back=yes&dept=178&last=9)

[saands]

Thanks ... I've read a LOT of bad things about the Tapco tubes ... namely that the factory pistons don't fit :what: I did find a place that has the regular ones with wood handguards, so that's why I was wondering if they would fit.

Thanks ...
Saands

ps ... still no theories on why this is happening? The regular gang must be on vacation together :eek: