Yugo SKS failures to eject, step by step...

[WhoKnowsWho]

Just tried out my Yugo SKS in the morning, cases did not eject, well dangit. They seemed to be really stuck in there, so... I am heading to Wal-Mart to get some steel wool and other stuff to clean out the chamber, and will stick some paper between the rear sight and gas tube to help tighten it up since it is a bit loose.

Anything else I should check? All the cosmo and grease and gunk has been cleaned from the whole system and the bolt slides back when empty without any problems. Oh, and yes, the gas switch thing is fully in the down position!

 

[rbernie]

Most likely the chamber is coated with lacquer from shooting steel-cased ammo. You'll need to figure out a way to clean that out - I use a bronze 7.62x39 chamber brush (aka 45ACP bore brush) chucked up in my drill and soaked in solvent.

 

[JohnKSa]

Most likely the gas cutoff is in the wrong position or clogged.

 

[WhoKnowsWho]

Most likely the gas cutoff is in the wrong position or clogged.

Nope, it's in the correct postion, and I put a pipe cleaner through it.

 

[rbernie]

Don't steel wool the chamber until you've tried to chemically dissolve the lacquer deposits. Pull the action from the stock (about a 30-second deal), grab some paint thinner, a chamber brush, and a drill, and have at it. It took me a good half hour (and dang near both batteries to my cordless drill) to clean the chamber on my Chinese Yugo.

 

[swingset]

Yugo SKS have a fatal flaw - and ejection/feed problems are well known with this variant. Double check your gas system....I'd bet a dollar that's the culprit.

You're on the right track making sure the chamber is clean and free of burrs...but that probably will not fix it. It's a good first thing to eliminate tho. Try this....

First, take off the piston and tube. Rod should be straight and clean. No obstructions and you should be able to take a punch and move the operating rod and spring by pushing from the barrel side. If that works, try testing the gas tube and piston. The piston should move freely down the tube if you drop it down there, but if you take it out and reverse it (put the piston end down the tube instead of the rod) it should encounter very slight resistance. If either doesn't happen, you need a new rod and piston or perhaps a new gas tube.

Second, make sure gas valve is not leaking. This has happened to 2 of mine. Take a paper towel and wet it. Make a thin strip that you can wrap around the gas valve. Now, fire the gun and see if the towel gets blown out. If it does, you'll know it's leaking and where. There are only two fixes for this, first is a new valve or if you're lucky a new gas tube - but they are expensive and hard to find.

The other fix is to seal up the valve where it meets the flared end of the gas tube. I read on the SKS boards a nice trick. Take a .45 acp case, and cut the very end of it off, making a brass ring about 1/16" thick. Then, with a torch, anneal it (heat it until cherry-red). Drop it in some oil to quench. Now it should be pliable. Use some needle nose pliers, and put them through the ring. Now spread the pliers out, working around the brass to stretch it. Do this until it's just BARELY smaller than the gas valve nipple. Now stretch it onto the gas valve and use a punch to drive it all the way on. You might break the ring the first few times you try this (I did), but you can start over easy enough. Then, cram the gas tube on there, and it should seal up perfect. This is a good fix, because almost anything else you can put on there will get blown out by the hot gas.

Good luck.

 

[No4Mk1]

....clean the chamber on my Chinese Yugo

Now that is a rare and strange variant I have yet to encounter in my journeys through gun shows and pawn shops.... You have a real keeper!

(just kidding.... )

 

[WhoKnowsWho]

First, take off the piston and tube. Rod should be straight and clean. No obstructions and you should be able to take a punch and move the operating rod and spring by pushing from the barrel side. If that works, try testing the gas tube and piston. The piston should move freely down the tube if you drop it down there, but if you take it out and reverse it (put the piston end down the tube instead of the rod) it should encounter very slight resistance. If either doesn't happen, you need a new rod and piston or perhaps a new gas tube.

Already checked that, first thing I did when I disassembled it originally.

The gas tube and valve interface is very loose, so I suspect a leak. I have some high temp o-rings I can probably try to use if that is the case.

But I am hoping the chamber clean will be good enough, because after firing, it was extremely hard to extract the case, but the case looked fine after every shot, and measured fine too.

 

[swingset]

WKW,

The reason the cases are sticking might be because the bolt isn't retracting far enough to eject, and then slamming the hot case back into the chamber. My guns did this, even tho the chamber was clean. It was the gas problem, and if you're loose on the nipple/bell of the gas tube, that's likely your problem. If you're really leaking good on the valve, you should probably have alot of soot around that area....unless it's blowing straight up away from the barrel.

O-Rings might work to seal it, but I sort of doubt it. Trying to hold back that burst of white-hot, high-PSI gas with anything but metal is likely to fail...but who knows.

Good luck.

 

[Ted_Bell]

Tapco sells replacement kit that includes the gas valve, tube, piston, and some other stuff. Cost is around $50. Make sure you get the kit for the yugo as they also sell the kit for all the other types as well.

I had the same problem with my first yugo. Works like new with the parts from tapco.

 

[WhoKnowsWho]

If you're really leaking good on the valve, you should probably have alot of soot around that area

That's what I was expecting too, but there wasn't any around it.

 

[R.H. Lee]

Good info swingset and Ted_Bell. Thanks for posting it.