Trouble Shooting

Below is a list of common problems and solutions. More to come...

P. My AK is stove piping or failing to extract (the round is getting stuck in between the charging handle and receiver as it is ejected)
S. A gummed up extractor usually causes this, when these rifles are shipped they are covered in cosmoline to prevent rust. Thus the cosmoline gets down inside the extractor and causes it to stick. To clean it follow my Bolt Disassembly tutorial and make sure it's free of any cosmoline when you put it back together.
P. My AK is still stove piping or failing to extract after cleaning the extractor
S. Take your rifle apart and make sure the gas port and tube are free of any obstructions. Also check and see if your gas piston is bent. If your gas piston is bent really bad it will need to be replaced.
P. My semi-auto AK is firing of two-three rounds when I pull the trigger once
S. This malfunction can be dangerous because it can lead to a slam fire(the rifle then explodes). The most common cause for this is Century's crap fire control group. Some times they are not heat-treated correctly and can become worn out. The only course of action is to replace it with another fire control group.

If you are experiencing this with a Red Star Arms fire control group you have the trigger set to too light of a trigger pull or your Allen screws have changed position while firing (because you failed to lock-tite them) leading to a situation where your disconnector doesn't engage.

Another possibility is your Shepard hook is installed incorrectly and one of the axis pins has come lose causing the fire control group to become misaligned. Look at my fire control group installation tutoral to install it correctly.

And finally your firing pin could be clogged with cosmoline. To clean it follow my Bolt Disassembly tutorial and make sure it's free of any cosmoline when you put it back together.

 
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