First i mushroomed out one punch, then bent another knocking out the taper pins on the gas block. After i finally removed the gas block I found that the folks at Palmetto state armory have torqued the barrel nut to Herculese’s specs. To clarify what Imean, it has been torqued to a setting past 90 ft/lbs & I cannot remove it without damaging my upper or tearing my vice off my workbench. PSA is not returning my calls or e-mails so far (4 days), if anyonehas any tips for removing the barrel nut I am all ears.
Before you ask, yes I have a clamshell style upper action block, vice, & workbench. This is not my first upper, just my first ‘problem’ upper.
Your kidding… Ok probably not but I wish you were.
As for sending it back… I am reluctant to do so without talking to PSA first, I would hate to be out my money, & the upper & their customer service has not garnered much faith.
You’re not the first person this has happened to (regarding the barrel nut). I can’t find the thread, but a member actually cracked his upper receiver trying to break free the damn barrel nut.
I’d follow Grant’s advice and send the problem back to PSA. Once you get a hold of them, however long that may take. I would hope they pay both ways for shipping too, as their error in assembly cause the problem.
My question is why are you trying to take it apart? New rail system?
It might be torqued to spec with a thread locker. I have not taken one apart, but generally when a nut is stuck, add heat to the nut (1/4 of the circumference). This method may not be acceptable on a barrel nut though.
Freezer for a couple hours, then immediately upon removal hit just the nut with heat.
Cold shrinks receiver, heat expands nut making it significantly ‘looser’ to work with.
Propane would be good, mapp gas is better as you want to impart a decent amount of heat into the nut before it gets a chance to convect to the receiver.
If a thread locker is employed the above can assist, but its dependant on which type as to how much it’ll help.
I’m a loyal PSA customer, but when it comes to them responding to cries of help on M4C you’ll be better off trying to talk to Helen Keller. On the TOS, they respond pretty darn quick and just appear to care more. It seems like they don’t answer their emails either, I had to call two days in a row to finally get a hold of someone. It pisses me off because I like the company and have spent a good amount of money on stuff through them. Why even bother to have an account here if you don’t monitor it at least once or twice a day. Is it asking too much? :nono:
Send a PM to PSA’s rep on here. It’s apparently a different person from the people who (often don’t) answer the phone and emails sent to the main email address.
Yep, that was me. I made a post on here on their dealer sub-forum and they finally responded. Unfortunately it was after I tried to muscle the barrel nut with a breaker bar.
I received a call from their gunsmith (Jim, I think). He told me their barrel nuts were torqued to spec and installed by guys that are “150 lbs soaking wet” and that they had never had a problem with them being too tight, until me. He offered to replace my upper receiver (for the price of a stripped one), swap over my barrel and re-install a new barrel nut and my railing system. They even finished contouring my “shaved” gas block and re-blued it. Total time from door-to-door was about a week.
Don’t let your ego get the best of you, like I did. Wait for them to reply and send your upper in. They will install whatever rail system you want.
As a side note, I let my buddy borrow my PSA rifle last weekend for his department training. I specifically told him to beat the piss out of it, to see how it held up. Over the course of 3 days, he said he put over 650 rounds through it and got it quite hot and dirty. He said it never hiccuped. Another sample size of one, but so far so good.