Diagnosing an F.A.L. issue, opinions sought

[totenkopf]

Last year I had the opportunity to purchase a Century Arms L1A1 F.A.L. clone. Receiver was made by Imbel, and much of the rest appears to be from a British/Australian parts kit (this rifle is an inch patterned model). Prior to purchasing it, I had zero experience with an F.A.L. Once I bought the rifle, I immediately couldn't resist shooting it, so I purchased a small fortune worth of Austrian surplus 7.62mm ammunition, and headed to the range. Rifle functioned flawlessly and was quite fun to shoot. I got it home, took the weapon down, gave it a nice cleaning, and put it away. I haven't had it out until today, same range, same ammunition, but when I fired the weapon I felt the take-down lever depress. I fixed the problem, and fired again, only for the take down lever to once again depress. So after making double sure I had sealed the rifle up properly, I gave it one more go and it happened again.

Any ideas why this might be happening? Might I have the wrong gas setting (it has been on 0 since I purchased the weapon), or not have reassembled the weapon properly after I cleaned it? Any helpful guidance on this matter would be appreciated. I greatly enjoy shooting this weapon...when it is functioning properly.

 

[hoosier_sully]

Are you referring to the lever to break the rifle open?

 

[hoosier_sully]

It's been a while since I had an inch gun but if I remember correctly the gas regulator sleeve is slightly different from the metric version. Ideally you should close the gas regulator and then open it one click until the rifle functions with no short stroking. The brass should land about 6 to 8 feet away from you at the 2 O'clock position. Use a pipe cleaner to make sure that the gas port is cleaned out. You should be able to stick it down the regulator sleeve and into the barrel. Check through the muzzle end (unloaded obviously) to make sure it reaches into the bore.

 

[totenkopf]

Are you referring to the lever to break the rifle open?

Yep. That's it. Sorry if I employed the wrong terminology.

 

[indykid]

The "take down lever" as call it is that lever that allows you to swing the lower away from the upper. I honestly can't figure why it would move unless it was broken and rotating freely on the release pin that goes into the receiver. It should feel tight when you try to move it. If the lever moves that easily, make sure it hasn't broken away from the pin it is attached to, or that the pin itself broke.

As for gas setting, I have mine on 4 and it does a nice job of extracting the shell and tossing it a few feet away.

 

[hoosier_sully]

When the upper and lower is locked together what position is the lock lever in? Is it straight up vertical or is it slightly canted toward the buttstock. i.e 1 o'clock position.

 

[indykid]

The vertical locking lever should be straight up, almost touching the rear of the upper.

 

[gska3873]

You do not want the take down lever to be straight up vertical, in that position there is no allowance for wear in of the frame lock in the lower to the lug that engages it on the upper receiver. Full engagement with the take down lever full vertical can cause a loose upper to lower fit over time. It sounds like you have the opposite which would be minimal engagement of the two. If that is the case this is what you can do. I am assuming you have a vertical take down lever since you said the parts are inch pattern.

Take the top cover off your upper and remove the bolt/carrier assembly. Re-assemble the upper to the lower and look to see how much engagement you have between the frame lock and the lug on the upper (give them a good hard snap together to make sure they are assembled tightly). Sometimes they require a little tap to get them seated together tightly. If there is not much engagement there then remove the frame lock from the lower and file just a little material off of the bottom of its face where it locks onto the upper receiver lug. Re-install and look at the engagement again, repeat as needed until you have a nice tight fit. When done properly the take down lever should be about 5-10 degrees or so from vertical (or 5-10 degrees or so from being perpendicular to the lines on the backplate of the lower receiver).

You will still want to adjust your gas setting. If it is inch pattern close the gas to the "0" setting by turning the regulator counterclockwise (muzzle downrange) until it stops at the "0" setting. Put one round in a mag and fire it for function (can't use the bolt hold open check if its inch pattern with non functional automatic bold hold open). If everything functions fine and ejects the empty casing turn the gas regulator one click clockwise and fire another single round from the mag. Continue with this until you get a failure to eject. Once that happens turn the regulator 2 clicks counterclockwise and you should be good to go function wise with that particular ammo.

 

[totenkopf]

gska- A thousand thank yous. The fix you mentioned solved my problem.

 

[gska3873]

gska- A thousand thank yous. The fix you mentioned solved my problem.

Your welcome, glad I could help.

 

[Indycar]

First of all, did the rifle eject the fired round and load a fresh round from the magazine when the upper and lower separated?

If it did, the locking pin is worn or the locking pin plunger is too weak. http://www.gunthings.com is a good place to get FAL/L1A parts. Gunthings is much faster and easier to deal with than Sarco or Gunparts.

If it did NOT.......rotate the gas plug on the FRONT face of the front sight 180 degrees. It might have a G and an A setting on it. G= Grenade A= Automatic

If the gas plug is on G, the gas is NOT diverted to the gas rod and the bolt doesn't move. When that happens, all the gas is vented put through the barrel and the recoil is very stiff. Stiff enough in guns with worn take down parts to move and cause the upper and lower to separate.

Another thing is the gas setting. If your locking parts are worn, a gas setting that completeley open (meaning: the most gas available to push the rod back into the bolt/carrier) could also cause worn parts to open. Hotter ammo of which the Austrian is could cause that

Hope that helps, if not...try the The FAL Files - Powered by vBulletin they are good people and love to help newbies