M1 carbine gas piston stuck

[greyling22]

so my m1 carbine suddenly stopped cycling reliably. I mean in between mags. I'm shooting lead so I thought enh, time to clean the gas system. I pulled the castle nut, and the piston will not move. Not in or out, not side to side, nothing. So I put it in the garage muzzle down and fulled the area around the piston with outers nitro bore solvent (claims to remove lead deposits) and left it overnight. no change. I tried wd-40, still nothing. I tried tapping it with a wood block and got nothing.

Does anybody have any great ideas. brake or carb cleaner? I'm starting to think about putting the castle nut only half way on or leaving it off altogether and touching off a round to break it free, which I know is a terrible terrible idea, which means I'm starting to get desperate. help

 

[greyling22]

bump because it's still stuck.

 

[rcmodel]

To my knowledge, there is no "lead solvent" that will dissolve lead, except Mercury.
And you don't want to mess with that.

As a last resort, you might try a torch on the gas cylinder.
If it's seized up with lead fouling you might have to melt it out a little bit it get it out.

Seems like lead bullets in a gas-operated gun might not be such a hot idea after all!

rc

 

[jcwit]

How many lead rounds have you shot thru it? Just an approx.

I think I'd wrap an old pillow and blankets around the carbine with the nut off and load a single round then fire it in a safe space. This should keep everything contained except the bullet and hopefully release the piston. If you want it even safer use a string to pull the trigger from a remote location.

 

[greyling22]

maybe 700?

I actually pulled the castle nut when it came to me from the cmp and the piston didn't move then either, but didn't know it was supposed to, put it all back together, and it worked great until the other day. that was about 1000 rounds ago.

 

[jcwit]

Thanks, was just wondering, I've shot literally thousands of lead rounds with my carbine with no problems, course that doesn't mean that tomorrow? Also it doesn't mean that lead isn't your problem.

 

[greyling22]

I don't think lead is THE problem. like I said, it wasn't 100% from the cmp, and the bore is completely lead free. I thing it may be an accumulation of 80 years worth of crud compounded by a little lead.

 

[mmitch]

Kuhnhausen's shop manual addresses gas piston maintainance ( and everything else, too ).
I ordered mine from Midway, Brownells also sells it.

You can also google same for the Army pub.

Mike

 

[Jim K]

With the barrelled action out of the stock and the operating slide removed, wrap the area around the gas cylinder with an old rag. Then grease an empty case and put it in the chamber, close the bolt, and stick a compressed air hose into the muzzle. The piston should blow out and be caught by the rag with no damage.

If you have no compressed air, try using a tight greased patch on a cleaning rod and force it into the barrel, hard and fast.

If that doesn't work, you can shoot it out, but that requires a lot more protection to keep from damaging the piston.

Jim

 

[Sport45]

You might also try holding the barreled receiver muzzle down in one hand (not supported) and then strike the rear of the receiver sharply with a rubber mallet. The inertia may pop the piston out.

I'd try the compressed air first.

 

[jcwit]

I think the compressed air idea is the way to go, very good idea.

 

[greyling22]

well, after trying all else, I finally decided to go for it, and using sandbags, a plywood barricade, a very isolated and safe place, and my shoestrings to pull the trigger I fired the carbine without the gas piston nut in place. It was very uneventful. the piston popped right out into the metal housing on the slide, no fuss, no drama. there was a lot of carbon caked all over everything, and a tiny little bit of lead. I'm all cleaned up and back in business now.

 

[jcwit]

Fantastic, glad it all worked out. Another happy ending.

 

[KCJ]

You don't oil the gas piston do you?

 

[greyling22]

nope.