Anyone know where this plunger goes in the R1A1 Sporter?

[Rocky Mosasaurus]

Field stripped for the first time in forever and after struggling with the screw I was able to remove the upper receiver from the lower. As I was about to put the bolt carrier back into the upper a plunger fell out and now I cannot reassemble until I know where it goes. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[snax]

Rear sight adjuster?

 

[Chevy 2 65]

Did you take apart the tigger assembly ?

 

[Rocky Mosasaurus]

Did you take apart the tigger assembly ?

No just a basic field strip with bolt carrier out and upper detached from lower after struggling greatly with the screw holding them together.

 

[Rocky Mosasaurus]

Rear sight adjuster?

From the resources I could find online it looks different

 

[wcorey]

IIRC it's the hammer rod...
Should be a spring in there...

 

[Rocky Mosasaurus]

IIRC it's the hammer rod...
Should be a spring in there...

This is the closest answer, the part is here:

FN/FAL Metric Hammer Rod – Falcon Arms

It has a smaller rod portion than the one I have, but they are very close.

 

[Rocky Mosasaurus]

IIRC it's the hammer rod...
Should be a spring in there...

We have a winner!



Thank you gentlemen for helping me out of my stupor. I think this should be good to go.

For the record, that screw really sucks to remove. A couple years ago I couldn’t get it and had to have a gunsmith remove it for me. Today it took over half an hour and I read on some forums that it’s kind of a three-handed job, you need to apply pressure on the little nub side while using a flathead or quarter on the other fatter side.

 

[Chevy 2 65]

No just a basic field strip with bolt carrier out and upper detached from lower after struggling greatly with the screw holding them together.

Yes, you did.

 

[Rocky Mosasaurus]

Yes, you did.

 

[Rocky Mosasaurus]

Did you take apart the tigger assembly ?

IIRC it's the hammer rod...
Should be a spring in there...

I am once again asking for your FAL advice…
Will there be a hammer spring wrapping around around the thin portion of the rod holding it in place? I took the rifle out today and after a shot my bolt was locked forward, didn’t extract the brass. I took it apart and when I looked at the hammer it was forward and the hammer spring was loose floating around free and unsecured. Removed brass reassembled did not fire it again. What part is supposed to secure this in place? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Rocky Mosasaurus]

Looks like I found a spare part for her in my supplies:



going to take a look near my work bench to see if I can recover the lost part, if not, install this and hope it fixes the issue.

EDIT: From this video (5:29) it looks like the hammer spring assembly is tucked in and not held down by anything so I'm second-guessing whether or not this actually is compatible with this firearm and not just a spare for another kind of FAL. Pretty lost right now and trying to get this to work, will have to take down the FAL later this afternoon and get to the bottom of this once and for all. Would hate to order snap caps to test, or worse, take this to a gunsmith knowing it was just a small mistake during field stripping and cleaning.

 

[wcorey]

I'm not entirely clear about what you're asking...
The hammer strut/spring/housing unit is held in by it's own spring tension when it's put in place in between the detent on the lower and the pocket/recess on the hammer.
Not sure what happened to the plunger set you pictured in the first post but I believe those are not 'disassembleable' as the tube holding the strut and spring on that type appears to be swaged over the end of the spring after the spring and strut are assembled into it. Did yours come apart somehow so there's three separate parts? If it's still all together, does the strut compress (with considerable tension) into the spring tube/housing and spring back again smoothly? Maybe it just wasn't seated properly in the the pocket where it rides in the hammer or on the other end the detent in the lower? Does the pocket/recess on the hammer look worn/wallowed out?
There's also an alternate version (metric maybe) that used an open ended shorter tube and the strut/spring is uncaptured until it's in place between the hammer and lower. I think the two types are interchangeable but not sure. I'd assume that's the type your replacement spring would go into...

 

[Rocky Mosasaurus]

I'm not entirely clear about what you're asking...
The hammer strut/spring/housing unit is held in by it's own spring tension when it's put in place in between the detent on the lower and the pocket/recess on the hammer.
Not sure what happened to the plunger set you pictured in the first post but I believe those are not 'disassembleable' as the tube holding the strut and spring on that type appears to be swaged over the end of the spring after the spring and strut are assembled into it. Did yours come apart somehow so there's three separate parts? If it's still all together, does the strut compress (with considerable tension) into the spring tube/housing and spring back again smoothly? Maybe it just wasn't seated properly in the the pocket where it rides in the hammer or on the other end the detent in the lower? Does the pocket/recess on the hammer look worn/wallowed out?
There's also an alternate version (metric maybe) that used an open ended shorter tube and the strut/spring is uncaptured until it's in place between the hammer and lower. I think the two types are interchangeable but not sure. I'd assume that's the type your replacement spring would go into...

That was precisely the solution:
The captured hammer spring is shown correctly placed under the hammer and the large plunger side in the dimple or detent on the buttstock side of the grip assembly. Now I think this should work.

 

[Rocky Mosasaurus]

This issue is completely resolved now; moderators may close the thread from further replies if they wish.