SKS Piston disassembly

[Crusader]

Just got my SKS in tonight. Overall decent rifle. Its not in the condition I was described but oh well, that's what I get for buying a rifle sight-unseen.

My SKS was absolutely gummed up with cosmo...more cosmoline in this rifle than I have ever seen in a rifle before. So much so that I can't get the piston out of the gas tube. There is so much cosmo that I can see it through the gas vent holes in the side of the gas tube. I've tried letting it soak in near-boiling water for about 30 minutes, tried punching it out with a hammer and punch, and currently have it soaking in Hoppes #9. Any other ideas how to get this bad boy out?
I'm thinking the reason it is so tough is that as soon as I get it to budge it forms a vacuum and just tightens up even more.

Edit:
Oh, and the safety is broken. Not the lever itself, but whatever detent or spring holds it with tension. Anybody know of a good website for spare SKS parts?

[pc_load_letter]

I cleaned my SKS today with some ZAP purple degreaser concentrate with hot water. Might work better to loosen the cosmo versus hot water alone.

[GDM]

Just got my SKS in tonight. Overall decent rifle. Its not in the condition I was described but oh well, that's what I get for buying a rifle sight-unseen.

My SKS was absolutely gummed up with cosmo...more cosmoline in this rifle than I have ever seen in a rifle before. So much so that I can't get the piston out of the gas tube. There is so much cosmo that I can see it through the gas vent holes in the side of the gas tube. I've tried letting it soak in near-boiling water for about 30 minutes, tried punching it out with a hammer and punch, and currently have it soaking in Hoppes #9. Any other ideas how to get this bad boy out?
I'm thinking the reason it is so tough is that as soon as I get it to budge it forms a vacuum and just tightens up even more.

Edit:
Oh, and the safety is broken. Not the lever itself, but whatever detent or spring holds it with tension. Anybody know of a good website for spare SKS parts?

Try

http://www.gunpartscorp.com/

They have spare parts most of the time.

[Vlad 11]

Im guessing this is a c&r T56 with a ton of cosmo. I had one that the piston head was a little buggered up and jammed in the tube. I was able to punch it out from behind. Maybe you have some rust in the tube.

If you have a heat gun you can get the cosmo to melt and drain out of the vent by blasting it with heat. The only thing you can do is what you tried ,, let it soak and pound it out from behind. If hoppes dont work try Kroil

And Kroil is what you will need for the work on the trigger group. If its anything like my t56, the pins will be a absolute biitch to punch out. I replaced a broken safety lever on mine, it took 3 days for the kroil to work in enough to let the pins release.

You can get a safety spring from APEX. its the only place that I saw had safetys and springs in stock

https://www.apexgunparts.com/product_info.php/cPath/40/products_id/2826

[saki302]

Just a heads-up, some SKSs don't come with a spring on the safety if I remember right, but had the safety stay up or down with tension from the part.

-Dave

[Crusader]

Just a heads-up, some SKSs don't come with a spring on the safety if I remember right, but had the safety stay up or down with tension from the part.

-Dave

If this is true, could you elaborate a bit? All I know is that it flops around like a wet noodle. If I put the safety up, the only thing holding it here was the cosmo. Now... nothing haha.

And being a Type 56 from 1958, wouldn't it be basically an exact copy of a Russian SKS? Were those rifles' safeties held in place by tension or by spring?

Tim

[paul0660]

Regular unleaded, unless it melts the good parts.

[Vlad 11]

I think only very early Russian trigger groups were without springs.

Yours should have a spring

did you look at your trigger group? check it to see if the spring is broken or bent in there

If it is missing, installing one will solve that problem. ( the fork goes towards the rear )

[Crusader]

Thanks Vlad, I'll have to check it out. I cleaned the action and barrel just enough to take it to the range. I finally was able to knock the piston out of the gas tube using a serious amount of penetrating oil and a hammer. There was so much fouling built up that I couldn't even scrub it out with a steel brush.
I just got what I could, reassembled it and took it to the range. Didn't shoot too much for accuracy, but I could keep it at 1.5 inch groups at 50 yards. Not bad.