One stop shop for AMD-65build parts?

mike2636 · 10-30-2009, 05:46 PM

I put together most of my AMD-65 kit. However, it did not come with hammer and disconnector spring and the double hook kit I bought didn't have them either. I'm putting a longer Romanian barrel on it and need a long piston and gas tube. I want the gas tube bare like the original. The only other issue seems to be the hand guard tabs are not going back under the receiver easily.
Any suggestions?
Thx,
Mike

**Coils** · 10-30-2009, 08:27 PM

That sucks you didn't get those two springs with the kit, the after market trigger groups don't come with them. Check the sponsors of this forum for them; Cope's, DPH, Apex, RCM and maybe AK-Builder.

As for the piston any standard AKM one will work and can be bought from most of the sponsors.

Gas tube might be a little harder to come by, if you can find a Saiga one that would work. Or you could remove the flanges from a standard AKM tube, they are spot welded on.

Hand gaurd tabs; Can you get it to go on at all?
It'd be better to have it tight, after some use it might loosen up a little and if you make it to easy to go on it might wiggle around later.

mnhunter59 · 10-30-2009, 09:33 PM

here's a couple pics of my AMD-65 build with full length romy barrel. I just bought a full length gas piston from AK-builder to replace the short AMD piston and stripped a romy gastube. You can peal the flanges off fairly easily, just take your time(dremel, needle nose pliers, cussing etc). I then blasted it all the parts with aluminum oxide and guncoted everything. Came out looking not to shabby. Repopulating the romy barrel was the hardest part trying to keep everything straight.

before guncote

after guncote

[IMG]

[/IMG]

Coils is right, both my lower hand guard and gas tube were too tight to start with but after a bit they wore right in and fit well now.

mike2636 · 10-31-2009, 06:31 AM

Thanx guys, a couple of questions:

1) are all gas tubes fluted? Even the ones with furniture flanges? Sounds like I'm gonna have to do what mnhunter did, but that seems kinda simple. Great pics BTW, thx

2) How/where are the hand guard tabs supposed to go? Do they just slip "under" the receiver? Right now I've got about a 1/4" gap and really didn't want to use the large screwdriver approach to pry up on the receiver and down on the hand guard.
thx again

PS isn't stuff supposed to "rattle around" on an AK?

**hcpookie** · 10-31-2009, 10:33 AM

1) NO not all gas tubes are fluted. Those that aren't are usually on the AK derivatives, such as the Valmet/Galil models. They use a larger collar to compensate for the lack of ribs.

You could EASILY build your own non-ribbed gas tube from some 4130 tubing of the proper diameter and wall thickness. I've build several for my custom builds. Look at AIRCRAFTSPRUCE.COM for 4130 tubing

The need for ribs vs. non-ribbed is simple - the ribs are sized so that a certain amount of gas escapes during the venting cycle. Without that, you can use the larger-ringed piston, but you will find you may be over-gassed and will have to drill bleed holes (like on Chinese AKs and Galil tubes) to compensate. Too few bleed holes = violent cycle, harder kick; too many bleed holes = potential for short-cycling in cold or dirty conditions.

THe back locking points can be easily made by cutting the tube long, cutting about 1/4" off of the sides, and bending the "tabs" up and down to get it locked in place when fully assembled.

2) hand guard tabs? As in the rear extension? That sits inside the receiver underneath the barrel. If you're finding that with mixed parts, you may need to reshape the "tab" to fit without prying.

3) A little side-to-side rattle is considered acceptable by factory armory standards. Front-to-back is not. So I've read. You can usually tweak the parts with some pliers and creative thinking to take up slack enough to limit rattle.

**Coils** · 10-31-2009, 11:36 AM

Quote:

3) A little side-to-side rattle is considered acceptable by factory armory standards. Front-to-back is not.

The front to back is what I meant by "wiggling around", sorry for not being clear on that.
Just look everything over several times with the lower meets the receiver, it could also be the front of the receiver too. Holding the receiver so the front is facing you and the bottom is down, see if it looks like the bottom edge of the receiver is turned up slightly or it might have a small lip on the inside, it can be hard to see either of these but if it's noticeable it will interfere with fitting the hand guard. If you don't see any of these then you will most likely have to "reshape the tabs on the lower" like Pookie said, just take it slow and it should seat in with force, if it's easy to install it will most likely have some slop in it later.

**hcpookie** · 10-31-2009, 12:22 PM

Also keep in mind that snug is OK, but TIGHT can throw off the sights. Kind of the opposite of bedding the barrel.