VZ58 Gas piston jammed, little help ?

Canadiankeeper

Canadiankeeper

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Ok so, this rifle is about 1200 rounds in. Cleaned after every use.

It has jammed up at about the 200 round mark today. (first day with the BC tactical hand guard, took some filing to fit properly.)
It was stuck back enough that it would not come back into battery.


As soon as I noticed this I went WTF
took out the mag, cleared rifle and let the action slam home... Closed no problem.
Put in new mag, racked bolt, one shot. Same thing.
So I cleared rifle, blasted in some cleaner, ran about 3 rounds until same problem.

So now I go ok, its got something wrong with it. Wait till I get home. Empty mag clear rifle, rack bolt so it closes. Continue on with my day.

Get home and go to clean it and the gas piston is STUCK. I mean I cant move it. The one thing I know moves it or has moved it I cant do in the city... (fire the rifle)

I have tried many different ways to get it back so I can pull out the piston to no avail.

Any suggestions or should I just give it to a smith ? Any other pictures I can take to help the brain stormin ?


EDIT MORE PICS




 
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Got it out with some TLC with a hammer and punch. Got pissy and put some muscle into it... REALLY junked up.

Going to cleaned and put back in hopefully it moves freely. No problems with any parts from what I can see...
 
Ok got it out, cleaned it all.. Now the piston doesn't want to go in... Almost as if its to big for the gas tube.

Going to try to polish it out with some steel wool.
 
Green Skull said:
What's the status of the spring.? It sounds like the spring broke and a piece got jammed in there.
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Spring is perfectly fine... Yea weird I know. Functions as it all should until the head of the piston tried to enter the gas port... It is as if the gas port got smaller or the head got bigger... I ordered a new piston to see if that's it...
 
I cleaned the crap out of the gas port, also used a steel brush with steel wool wrapped around it to polish the inside of the gas port to a spit polish.... No luck still getting the head back in smoothly...
 
Is it possible the gas block has moved out of alignment? The reason I say this is I have adjusted mine once and if it moves too far it will cause the piston to jam. I have also heard the same can happen if too much force is used installing upper and lower hand guards. Just a thought.
 
I had a similar issue with a TAPCO upper handguard on my SKS, it was very difficult to lock into place, and threw out the alignment of the gas tube...
 
armilaria said:
Is it possible the gas block has moved out of alignment? The reason I say this is I have adjusted mine once and if it moves too far it will cause the piston to jam. I have also heard the same can happen if too much force is used installing upper and lower hand guards. Just a thought.
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didn't even know it could adjust... How did you go about adjusting it
 
It is probably something you may want to have a gunsmith do. However, it is fairly easy redneck style. I popped out the pin(s) on the gas block and used a small piece of wood and a hammer and hammered the gas block on the side I wanted it to move. It Takes a bit to break it loose at first at least on mine but I was able to move it around. Then put the pins back in and your done. It took some time ensuring the piston and the gas block were perfectly aligned.

I would examine the piston and the gas block to determine unusual wear. This will likely tell you if it is miss aligned.

Good luck.
 
armilaria said:
It is probably something you may want to have a gunsmith do. However, it is fairly easy redneck style. I popped out the pin(s) on the gas block and used a small piece of wood and a hammer and hammered the gas block on the side I wanted it to move. It Takes a bit to break it loose at first at least on mine but I was able to move it around. Then put the pins back in and your done. It took some time ensuring the piston and the gas block were perfectly aligned.

I would examine the piston and the gas block to determine unusual wear. This will likely tell you if it is miss aligned.

Good luck.
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thanks, I don't see any unusual wear at all to my eyes. No weird rubbing marks or anything obvious.

EDIT scratch that, got a good flash light out.. some scratches on the left side of the inside of the gas port.
 
Canadiankeeper said:
Ive only heard of infamous CZ/VZ gremlin. That is to do with bolt. This is a problem with gas port/piston
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Unsure if this is your problem, but one similar has been documented: info on the gas port/piston problem.

superlative said:
The reason for some 7.62 bolts breaking is the same as the reason for some 5.56 bolts breaking and it has nothing to do with bolts themselves. Bolts are perfectly alright, we just had several batches of rifles with incorrect combination of the gas holes and pistons. In other words, gas holes were drilled too big and thus way too much energy is going into the bolt assembly after the bolt unlocks. There is an easy fix to that - swapping a piston for one with slightly smaller diameter.

So anyone whose bolt already broke, needs to request not only a bolt replacement, but needs to send his / her rifle to Movie Arms for an inspection, piston swap and test firing. I also strongly encourage anyone whose rifle is ejecting empty cases more than 4 - 5 meters away from the rifle to send the whole rifle to Movie Arms to have the same check and fix done.

While there is no reason for our Canadian clients to despair, because our 5 year warranty stands and we will also cover everyone´s shipping charges if you include the copy of your postage slip (please, consult with Movie Arms before mailing any firearm to them and get their approval before you do so !), we are perfectly aware of what disappointment and problems we have caused to some of our clients and would like to take this opportunity and deeply apologize to everyone with CSA vz. 58 Sporter RIFLE that doesn´t perform as it should and needs warranty service. No one is more sorry and embarrassed than me.

Many thanks for your patience.

Tomas Quis
CSA
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