quick ak question

[bkjeffrey]

Ive got a Romainian WASR-10. I noticed that there are 4 small ports in the gas tube. I can see the gas piston in them, and it seems that the piston is pushed back only about an inch before the ports are exposed releasing the gasses. Im wondering how common these ports are on other makes of AKs. This wasr has had about 500 rounds through it and cycles like crap, it always jams up, or fails to feed or extract completely............Im wondering if these ports are limiting the energy of the gas to fully cycle the firearm???

 

[pkoch62]

My WASR-3 has similar holes, in a ring near where the gas tube attaches to the gas block.

I've seen many other AKs with holes in the gas tube in various arrangements that cycled fine. Maybe the channel in the gas block is becoming clogged?

 

[MTMilitiaman]

My Century runs fine but I coulda been a lucky one.

My brother has had a few problems with his and from what I glean off of reports like these, problems with anything Century produces really aren't that uncommon.

Only Century could ruin something as simple and inherently reliable as the Kalashnikov.

 

[HorseSoldier]

Vent holes in the gas system are part of the design, and probably not the cause of your cycling issues.

 

[woodfiend]

I know that the ports aren't the problem. Tell me, how does it feel when you cycle the bolt back with your hand? Can you feel anything binding? These rifles may sometimes have poor fitting with the piston and the gas tube.

Also I'm thinking that the gas tube might be clogged as pkoch62 mentioned. There might be some cosmoline in it.

I'd check those two things out. Good luck!

 

[Evil Monkey]

No it's probably because your wasr is a piece of junk. No offense, it's just the nature of the wasr and how it was built.

You do know that there's MILLIONS of AK's in the world that run like they should, right? They also have the same ports, in the same place, with the piston being pushed back the same amount of distance. Yet, they don't have the problems your rifle is having.

Your rifle has something else wrong with it.

My wasr used to have the bolt carrier lock back sometimes during firing, and AK's don't have a bolt catch!

Turns out the rear U-shaped rod of the recoil assembly was bent inward, causing the front U-shaped rod to get caught. I twisted it open and the problem went away. Sometimes it's simple, sometimes it may not be.

you got to tell us what exactly is your rifle doing when it jams, before anybody can diagnose what's going on.

you mentioned a failure to extract, which is odd considering the AK's tapered round and huge extractor. This leads me to believe that there may be a gas port issue, the hole drilled into the barrel that matches up with the hole drilled into the gas block. Either the holes are too small, or they are misaligned, etc. Or maybe the extractor is messed up and needs replacing. It can be complex, or it can be simple.

 

[mljdeckard]

I'm going to guess cosmoline too. I had a friend buy a WASR-10, and complain to me that it didn't run very well. I asked him if he had stripped off the cosmoline, he asked, "What's cosmoline?" We spent a saturday morning with a field manual, a wire brush, and a can of white gas. (He didn't know how to field strip it either.) MAGIC!! It ran beautifully after that. We have shot a bajillion rounds through it with sporadic cleaning. I still tell anyone, get a WASR, they run great.

If there is another problem with it, the good news is, the parts aren't exactly rare. I have a shop here that could take one look at it and know what was wrong, I have no idea what kind of techs you have there, any shops that sell and service those kinds of rifles.

 

[N003k]

Hmm I had problems with my WASR-3 for feeding and extracting too, it was perfectly cleaned, and something I noticed is that the piston was actually getting wear on one side from scraping inside the rear site block (Correct me if I'm wrong on the part name!) Dont know if the piston was bent, or the block on an odd angle...I just traded it in and paid the extra cash to get a VZ58...which I STILL haven't even been able to get to the range with yet <sigh> Ah so basically, check the piston, see if it's got new wear on it from scraping or not, that may be your problem.

 

[nalioth]

Hmm I had problems with my WASR-3 for feeding and extracting too, it was perfectly cleaned,<snip>

The .223 Kalashnikovs are more finicky than their 7.62x39 and 5.45x39 brothers as far as "proper assembly" needed. It's the design of the cartridge case that contributes to this.

and something I noticed is that the piston was actually getting wear on one side from scraping inside the rear site block (Correct me if I'm wrong on the part name!) Dont know if the piston was bent, or the block on an odd angle

Misaligned gas blocks, front and rear sight blocks are not uncommon, especially in the WASR line.

 

[bkjeffrey]

You do know that there's MILLIONS of AK's in the world that run like they should, right?

Uhh.....yea. I had quite a few shot at me..... I know they can function properley.

They also have the same ports, in the same place, with the piston being pushed back the same amount of distance.

Ive seen quite a few that dont have the ports.

I did not know that they ALL had these ports we speak of. I should have labeled this thread "Noob question about my first AK" I just got this thing a month ago. I have field stripped it and cleaned it very thoroughly, including the gas block port.

What I meant by failure to extract actually is failure to fully extract. It sometimes will extract the spent case only partially and then, usually when it does that, the bolt carrier will actually be "stuck" with the casing still attached to the bolt face, and the neck of the spent casing will partially be inserted into the chamber. A quick slap of the charging handle sends the bolt back home and I can manually cycle the action to extract and eject the spent case and chamber another round. It will run for a few rounds then do this again.

If it doesnt jam while extracting, the gun will jam by failing to fully feed. Basically the bolt will only partially insert a new round in the chamber. I usually got to smack the charging handle again.

oh.....one more problem........the trigger wont reset sometimes, usually have to put my finger behind the trigger and push it back forward sometimes......

the spring is really tight in there.

There is no obvious damage to the piston and gas tube that I can see and all the wear marks are even.

Im leaning to the problem being the angles cut on the hammer and the bottom of the bolt carrier......if I even slightly ride the bolt home it will hang up about where the hammer is.

Time to get out the dremel?

 

[nalioth]

Im leaning to the problem being the angles cut on the hammer and the bottom of the bolt carrier

I'm not.

If your rear sight block is dragging on your bolt carrier/piston travel, tihis will definitely keep the ejection cycle from happening as it should.

Send it back.

 

[Ian]

Sounds to me like potentially a problem with the hammer spring. If it's too strong or improperly installed somehow, then the hammer is going to be pushing up on the bolt carrier with a lot of force when the rifle cycles. That friction would slow the bolt carrier down, potentially causing both your feeding and extraction issues. Can you strip out the bolt carrier and post a photo or two of the fire control parts? Might be something visible that could make a definitive diagnosis. A quick test would be to check if you can get the bolt to stick open halfway through the stroke by slowly hand-cycling it. That's not a 100% test, because some will work fine and stick when cycled slowly, but it's a good place to start.

As for the vent holes, the early models of the AK used a couple horizontal lines of vent holes along the length of the gas tube. The AKM and its clones changed that to a ring of holes in the gas block. The design is such that all the acceleration is done in the first half inch or so of piston travel, with momentum carrying the working bits the rest of the way back.

Edit - Don't go for the Dremel yet!

 

[bkjeffrey]

Thanks, Im gonna post pics tonight when I get home...........thanks for all the help guys.

 

[elmerfudd]

I don't know what the problem is, but it's definitely not the ports. An AK will actually function with the gas tube completely removed. It gets all the energy it needs to cycle from that first half inch of travel inside the gas block. The tube is just needed to keep crud out and maybe guide the piston a little. Some AK's have ported gas tubes so that the carbon will be blown out of the rifle rather than into the gas tube or back into the receiver.

 

[saigafreake]

What kind of mags are you using?

 

[bkjeffrey]

the one that came with it.........stamped steel parkerized thingy, I tried a buddies and had the same issues.......im gonna get some pics later for you pros.

 

[bkjeffrey]

heres a few pics I hop can help diagnose this problem.
1

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5

6 This one shows how the bolt hangs up on the trigger. The forward end of the bolt seems to bind up on the trigger while heading forward. I think the angles of the mating surfaces are too steep