My two Yugo SKS's from H*ll

[dave3006]

I bought two Yugo SKS from J&G Sales. On the outside, they look good. The finish is worn. But, they look good. I spent hours cleaning the rifles with mineral spirits and got ALL the cosmoline out. I disassembled the bolts and cleaned them as well. They were as clean as you would expect.

Gun 1 - stove pipes every 3rd or 4th round. I J&G offered to replace my gas tube and gas valve. I am still waiting for the replacement parts.

Gun 2 - fires but does not extract. The bolt barely moves back and the round is tight in the chamber.

Gun 1 (again) - I took the gas tube and valve off gun #2. Gun 1 now fires and does not extract.

I am starting to hate these things. I cleaned the chambers very well. Any ideas on what is going on?

 

[dave3006]

P.S. The gas valves are all the way to the right. They are not in the single shot mode.

 

[Snowdog]

Though this sounds more like a mechanical problem of some sort to me, I would suggest you try a varying assortment of ammunition all the same.

The chambers could be rough, but I was under the impression the Yugos featured chrome-lined chambers/barrels.
Are the rims of the fired cartridges damaged from the extractor at all? If there's significant score marks from the extractors on the cartridges rim, your gas system is most likely working fine. If your rifle is completely locked up as the extractor is engaged with the fired cartridge, the gas system would be most suspect.
Hopefully, your gas port isn't blocked off with foreign matter. Have you also checked the tolerance between the gas piston and the walls of the gas tube for some funky out-of-spec abnormality? The piston should be able to move freely in the gas tube with no binding.

If there is no evidence of damage to the rims of the (still chambered) cartridged, your extractor is probably failing to engage properly, and you might want to look into a new extractor spring.

Sorry to hear of your misfortune! My two SKS rifles are Chicom and work flawlessly. I'm sure you'll eventually get that all straightned out and love your rifles.
Good luck with the repairs.

 

[Dot_mdb]

I think your experiment with trying the parts from the second gun on the first proves that you have a bad valve to tube connection. I am assuming that on gun two you can extract manually by pulling the bolt back?

I have never had a stove pipe on my SKS. My Government Model .45 is good at that little trick. Are you sure that you have the main recoil spring assembled with the curly part forward?

How is the condition of the operating rod, housing and spring at the rear of the piston?

What is the conditon of the piston? Mine fits so tightly in the tube that it has to be driven out from the rear, but once inside it moves back and forth easily.

Bill

 

[BryanP]

I was under the impression the Yugos featured chrome-lined chambers/barrels.

Nope. The Yugo SKS is notable in that it doesn't have a chromed barrel like most of the other variants. Apparently Yugoslavia has little or no native source of chromium and decided at the time that it wasn't worth importing for this purpose.

 

[BamBam-31]

Hmm. My friend and I both have Yugos, and they function flawlessly with all kinds of crap ammo.

Maybe the gas port is dirty on Yugo #1? You have the little gas port cleaning tool (looks kinda like an allen wrench)?

Did you clean the piston extention area of all cosmo?

Dunno. Good luck, tho.

 

[yesterdaysyouth]

oh the sks....

i had one that was like both of yours, find some o-rings and put one in between the valve and the gas tube... it'll probally fire a couple times before it blows the ring out...

just to check if you don't have any o rings to fit, take some plain white paper and tape it around the gas tube/valve... then shoot as many rounds as you can stand to shoot bolt action .... you'll find the leak
later
john

 

[DMK]

I think yesterdaysyouth nailed it.

It sounds to me like both have the dreaded bad gas valve syndrome. One is bad enough not to cycle at all and the other just bad enough not to cycle with enough force to eject the round.

Some guys have had luck with tightly wrapping a piece of wire(like from a big paperclip) around the groove in the valve. It's certainly a good test to make sure that's the problem.

If you need one, you can buy a replacement valve here:
http://www.e-gunparts.com/productschem.asp?chrMasterModel=2620z59/66

SKS
59/66
Item No. 842810
Gas Shut Off Valve
Retail Price: $7.95

 

[dave3006]

Thank you to everyone that replied!

The gas valve does look less than perfect. I have cleaned the gas port. And, the piston EASILY moves in the gas tube. It falls out on it's own when tilted below horizontal. The rims of the rounds do not look like the extractor is damaging them.

I will try the paper and wire ideas. I will ask J&G to send me a new tube and valve. I have had great customer service from them.

Thanks.

 

[SodaPop]

Dave- what was wrong with that Mini 14 you had that had a problem extracting?

Make sure you're not over lubing or over slicking up the face of the bolt or the chamber. If I put lube on my Ruger 10/22 it will stove pipe.

I did have a problem with my FAL not extracting because the chamber was too dry after doing a very thorough cleaning of the barrel with Nitro-solvent. I luckily had my cleaning rod and CLP with me and ran a wet patch down the barrel and solved the problem. I'm willing to bet that is your problem.

Nice to see you're still buying two of everything.

 

[dave3006]

Sodapop, you really pay attention. Man, I have some sort of "new" gun curse. One of my Mini-14s would not extract, left the round in the chamber, and then tried to feed a new one. After 4 trips back to Ruger, they finally replaced the gun. Now, I have fired both Mini's over 2000 rounds without one single malfunction. I shortened the barrel to 16" and these guns do 2-3 MOA with no shift in POI when the barrel gets hot. I have to say I really like the Minis now.

I am now going through the same thing with the SKS's. I'll stick it out and find the problem. The SKS seems like a neat gun. Although, I might like them better when they finally work.

I went throught the same thing with the Bushmaster AR-15s too. Undersized gas port was the problem.

Maybe this is why I buy two of everything. Mr. Murphy seems to go with me on ALL my trips to the range. As a matter of fact, when manufacturing (I am an electrical engineer) wants to test a new prototype at my company, they call me into the lab. I have a way of having things fail on me. My reputation is growing. Lucky me.

 

[DMK]

Make sure you're not over lubing or over slicking up the face of the bolt or the chamber. If I put lube on my Ruger 10/22 it will stove pipe.

Sodapop, normally I'd agree with you. Overlubing is a bad practice. However, I wouldn't think that it would jam up an SKS any more than it would an AK. You could probably throw a handful of mud in the action of these things and they'd throw it out as they cycled round after round. Other than a broken part, it seems the only thing that will hang them up is a gas system leak.

dave3006, keep at it. Don't get soured on the SKS because of a leaky valve. The Yugo 59/66 is the only SKS with this problem and if you get the valve fixed or replaced, I'll bet you won't get another bobble out of it.

 

[SodaPop]

I wouldn't think that it would jam up an SKS any more than it would an AK.

I'm talking more about slicking up the extractor.

Point taken, though.

Sodapop, you really pay attention.

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