timing a Lee Enfield # 5 bolt head
- Thread starter mbogo3
- Start date
From the face only. Unscrew the head, remove extractor and spring, remove all the gunk with oven cleaner or similar, dry with heat, and lap on a piece of plate glass, granite counter top etc. with fine emery paper. Push down well enough to keep surfaces dead square, but not so much you dig in. A rotary or figure of eight motion helps to keep things flat. You don't ever want to take metal off the end of the bolt body because the farther the head turns past the recoil lug the less primary extraction you have.
Turns too far, or not far enough?
Suggests to me the bolt body is the issue
Just for $#!Ts 'n giggles, have you tried screwing the bolt head on with the firing pin removed [a long shot I grant you, but it could be the firing pin is not screwed in far enough & it is stopping the bolt head from being able to be screwed in deep enough]?
Is the bolt body not the same # as the receiver?
Is the bolt body not the same # as the receiver?
Wouldn't that just cause the cocking piece to move back a little. The firing pin shouldn't be fixed to the bolt body at all, just floating in there
If your head space is tight that works, or at at max really. A little lose isn't the worst with rifles they aren't exactly precision rifles . One time I had a nice clean long bolt head (brought head space to a slight rub in the base of the case) that just, and I mean just tightened up to he inline with the rib. But it made the bolt close and lift heavy so I did clean up the back of the bolt head a bit.
After reading back I do want to point out, on no1 rifles the threads were random you could have 10 bolt head that don't clock properly. They needed to be no more then 8* past the bolt rib. It's common to find them that doesn't turn in enough to line up with the rib and be a few degrees before the rib too. So there is various lengths and various degrees of clocking to deal with when finding a new bolt head on a no1
Although I do think since you mentioned numbered bolt heads this rifle is a no4 action and the above info might not apply
Also didn't realize this was a project rifle. Disregard if I'm off point.
Although I do think since you mentioned numbered bolt heads this rifle is a no4 action and the above info might not apply
Also didn't realize this was a project rifle. Disregard if I'm off point.
- Location
- Blaster land, Okanagan BC
This has been my experience, had a no.4 with headspace that I wanted to tighten up. The next size up bolt head wouldn’t time far enough to install, swapped it to a different bolt body and it installed and timed perfectly.
IIRC, there was a tool that looked something like a die-wrench holder with a cut-out for the bolt head. This was used to tighten the bolt head onto the body. I think it was for a #1, but am not sure.
No, that's one of the no-no's as per mine above. If you don't have a selection of bolt heads to choose from or the one you need to use won't turn far enough to line up with the recoil lug without force, then maybe some lapping compound on the shoulders and work it back and forth until it does. That way both surfaces will be abraded, not just the end of the bolt. The more the bolt head turns past the lug, the less primary extraction. Changing bolt heads is easy compared to changing a bolt, so they wanted to avoid that.
Once the firing pin, spring and cocking piece are fitted to the bolt, undo the bolt head one complete rotation, turn the cocking piece so the firing pin projects through the face of the bolt head and then screw the bolt head back in slowly. The back end of the bolt head must contact the circular shoulder on the firing pin and you can feel the increase in friction when that occurs. If the lug is 12 o'clock that contact should occur by 6 o'clock or close to it, but not before about 3 o'clock. The bolt head must stop the forward travel of the firing pin, not the cocking piece slamming into the back end of the bolt. Firing pin should project 30-40 thou past the bolt face IIRC.
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