Vz-58 11.75" .223 Malfunctions

I only shot 60 rounds through mine and I had two failure to extract problems. Empty case stayed in the chamber, bolt went back, caught a new round off the top of the mag as it was coming back forward and sent it straight into the empty case in the chamber, bending the cartridge.

At least it makes me practice my drills.
 
Ok did some research via google and on another forum (czfireamrs) and found that others were having this same problem (D-Technik vz58 vs CSA vz58s..). Solutions discussed were as follows...

1) Satain's idea. Open up the gas port. Stock the port is 3mm. Some opened the gas port up to 3.5, 4 and in some case 4.5 mm. 4.5 mm was considered way too big as anything over 4mm would not add anything more in the way of force in moving the bolt. Some were saying even with the 4mm open, the guns were still getting the same malfunctions.

2) Cutting the spring, also mentioned above and they got the idea from this forum (they said CGN by name). It has been discussed in this thread in length so no need to rehash what that does.

3) Gas piston issue. The OP in the other forum stated the following...

"Turns out the piston in the gun is undersized. It was .4685". My CAI VZ is running a .473" piston head. I have two spares I bought from Czechpoint....they are running .471 and .4715". I'm going to swap them out to see if that was part of the problem."

A later update stated the piston solved the problem. "Got it running today. Ran flawlessly with the bigger piston and my normal ammo; Brown Bear HP. Ran 120 rounds of BB with no problems....but it wouldn't run Golden Tiger FMJ reliably." With the unreliable Golden Tiger the OP got 3 stovepipes out of 100 rounds. He also stated that the gas port had been opened up to 4.5 mm.

The gun in the other forum was made by D-Technik with the smaller piston. I'm not sure what that means in relation to the CSA pistons as I don't know the specs on those for our guns.

Might help, or might have nothing to do with our guns.
 
I have fired about 100 rounds through mine. Runs like a sewing machine.

Included in my test is some CQB ammo that is loaded mild, about 150 fps less than 55 gr Winchester white box.

The random use of some undersized pistons sounds very plausible. Hopefully they can be replaced easily.

If not, I would give it to a buddy who does hard chroming.
 
Last edited:
I've sent a couple of PMs to North Sylvanto see where I could buy spare parts such as extra recoil springs and to also ask their opinon on the matter. No replies yet....
 
Folks,

Anyone know another way to contact North Sylvan other than PM? I have sent numerous requests for help on this matter starting back on May 28th with no response.

Cheers,
Peter
 
Orvis said:
Folks,

Anyone know another way to contact North Sylvan other than PM? I have sent numerous requests for help on this matter starting back on May 28th with no response.

Cheers,
Peter
Click to expand...

Try this link for what I think is North Sylva's company profile, phone and fax number:
http://www.profilecanada.com/companydetail.cfm?company=2462992_North_Sylva_Co_North_York_ON
 
Shot mine today for the second time (been busy fishing :D) 80 rounds and only had 1 ETE towards the end where first time I had one every 5- 10 rounds. It's either braking in or the AMK muzzle brake I installed somehow helped!
 
Last edited:
Probably breaking in. I had the AKM brake on mine for the first/only 45 rounds I've put thru it and got more stove pipes than that. I think I'll put a couple hundred thru it and see what settles out before I tinker.
 
Iloverevolvers said:
Try this link for what I think is North Sylva's company profile, phone and fax number:
http://www.profilecanada.com/companydetail.cfm?company=2462992_North_Sylva_Co_North_York_ON
Click to expand...

I found North Sylvan's email address here on CGN and will try to contact them this way. I find it strange they have not replied to my PMs; most people on here who have dealt with them say they respond to PMs right away.:confused:

Cheers,
Peter
 
Sent an email to Jeff at North Sylvan and he got back to me right away.:D
Looks like he wants to have my rifle sent to him so he can see first hand what is happening and fix it.
I'll keep you all updated and hopefully tell you the fix for this issue.

Cheers,
Peter
 
Here's an update.
North Sylva has put me in contact with Dan from CSA USA.
After explaining my issues, he believes it is an extraction issue and that the extractor spring may be bad.
I asked him for a new spring, but instead, he is sending me a new bolt (in his words, it's easier than trying to install the spring) to see if that will fix the issue.
Now that is customer service!!:D
I will keep you updated when the new bolt arrives and the carbine is tested.

Cheers,
Peter
 
Update again with spring trim. I ended up taking about 2.5" off the spring, and it now runs perfectly! I've been feeding it everything and it is flawless. For the idea of opening the gas port, I was told that this would do NOTHING because the gas' only function is to unlock the breach, not to cycle the action. In fairness, it is possible that if the gas was insufficient to unlock the breach quickly enough, then a good bit of the recoil impulse that runs the bolt could be lost, causing the dreaded short-stroke. I will agree that it wouldn't be at all a bad idea to have a replacement spring handy before doing the mod, just in case. One needs to understand that replacing a spring is both simple and inexpensive, particularly when compared to trying to make an oversized gas port hole smaller . . .
 
For the idea of opening the gas port, I was told that this would do NOTHING because the gas' only function is to unlock the breach, not to cycle the action.
Click to expand...

Seems like a silly thing for them to say.

If the piston doesn't hit the bolt carrier hard enough, it will not move through it's complete cycle. How hard it hits depends on how much energy has been imparted via the gas port. It's a gas-operated rifle, not recoil-operated.
 
This might be one of those problems that can be fixed by a couple of different methods. Recoil spring and the extractor spring might both be methods that get the same result. I'm not convinced the gas port enlargement does much, at least in all cases, maybe some. Waiting to here about the extractor spring.
 
I was able to finally take my carbine out to the range with the new bolt that CSA sent me; unfortunately, the problem remains.:mad:
Even though there's a failure to extract the spent casing causing the fresh round to double feed & jam behind it, obviously it was not the extractor at fault.
Back to CSA to see what they say....

Cheers,
Peter
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom