The gas piston housing or the blocky unit that is attached to the barrel that houses the gas piston and gas piston nut is loose. Was it pressed fit and staked onto the barrel. I don't see anything in the manual that suggests otherwise.
Is it a GI gun or a civilian replica? The civilian replicas differed in several ways from the GI guns.
On the GI guns the first barrels had integral gas blocks. Later production barrels had swaged blocks. I don't know what the time frame was for the change. The swaged blocks became the defacto standard. Best info that I have suggests that there were a couple variations of each. I'm unaware of any method for re-swaging one that has come loose. Perhaps silver solder?
Commercial barrels had various versions of welded gas blocks.
Best source of info is probably on of the milsurp forums.
Per this link ( http://www.m1carbinesinc.com/carbine_iai.html ) the "barrels were manufactured by Green Mountain Rifle Barrel Co. of Conway, NH. They were machined by SMI-MA Inc. Worcester, MA. M1 Carbine barrels manufactured by Green Mountain are easy to identify by examining the gas piston housing area. The barrel increases in diameter slightly in front of the gas piston housing. The shape of the gas piston housing is unique to these barrels. The gas piston housing was cast, the injection hole was located on the right side of the gas piston housing." The photo caption indicates that the gas piston housings were cast and swaged.
Based on BBBBill's post it looks like you will have to press off the gas block, knurl the area the gas block is attached to and press it back on. I've never done this on the M1 Carbine so I'm guessing here. I have done this with AKs when building them. Sometimes the interference fit is too loose and you have to compensate for it by knurlling the journal.
Interesting alternative to soldering it in place. I would have to have a carbine wrench and barrel blocks as well as something to remove the front sight.
Interesting alternative to soldering it in place. I would have to have a carbine wrench and barrel blocks as well as something to remove the front sight.
Soldering with staybrite 8 or silver is probably the easiest way and best bet
Restaked the gas piston housing and then noticed another problem. The front sight was canted! You can't do squat about it. It is crucial that the gas piston is perpendicular to the bore and the front sight is canted (from user's view) to 11 o'clock.
When checking the rear sight, found that was canted to two o'clock. Figured I was going to have to recut the dovetail on a mill so the sight was removed. While my friend was studying the dovetail for level, I studied the sight. The sight was bent at the back. Apparently the monkey who assembled it didn't use the GI tool and used a punch. He placed it at the wrong spot and bent the sight base.
So, anyone checking out an IAI aftermarket check the following:
1) Gas piston housing for tightness. It's staked in.
2) Front sight for alignment with receiver.
3) Rear sight alignment.
Anyone see an Israeli reproduction and see how they do it?
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