I was wondering if it’s general practice to use Lithium Grease or some sort of lubricant on the screw used to hold the pistol grip to the receiver? I was always told to use Lithium Grease on all Steal to Aluminum applications. This is my first build and I just want to make sure I’m covering all of the bases.
Use a star washer and/or a little dab of blue Locktite.
Very little torque, like two fingers on the screw driver.
When I installed a Magpul grip on an AR, the mounting screw came with a touch of pre-applied Lock-Tite
Two things. The Magpul Miad grip I used specifically said not to use a star washer. Also, I had to use a ton of torque just to get the grip to sit flush. I literally had to use two hands on the screw driver. I think the screw was actually seating itself into the plastic grip.
By the way, prior to screwing on the Magpul Miad on, I used the stock grip that comes with the PSA LPK. Now that required a star washer and used a Allen Head rather than the flat head the Magpul grip uses. That screw went in and was no where near as hard to screw in. I saw someone online say that the reason Magpul tells you not to use the Star Washer is because they actually want the screw to seat itself into the plastic in order for a tighter hold.
Maybe that’s why it got very hard to screw in towards the end. I didn’t bother cleaning off the hardened pre-added loctite.
Did it seem like the screw needed to be tightened pretty good? Also did it feel like you were seating the screw into the plastic inside of the grip?
I use an internal tooth star washer and moly grease. never had an issue.
Good, you’re not supposed to. That would defeat the purpose.
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I usually always clean the pre-installed stuff and add my own. I just couldn’t find mine this time. I suppose this could have been a reason why it was so hard to screw on? It was on pretty thick towards the end. It’s just that every video I’ve seen someone installing a pistol grip, it looks like it goes on pretty easily without much torque. My install required me turning the screw driver as hard as I could just to get the grip to stay on tight with no play.
I’m just afraid I may have done damage to the receiver since I applied a lot of torque.
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Mine threaded on no problem, as would be expected. You’ll feel some resistance at the point of the Loc-Tite. If you had to use two hands, you may have been cross threading it.
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Most of the screw went on easy. It was towards the end that didn’t. I would think I’d know if I cross threaded it from the beginning. Right?
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Yes. If it threaded most of the way in without any issues, you should be ok, as long as you didn’t over tighten it and damage anything.
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Would there be any tell tale signs I did any damage? I think the only thing I may have damaged was the grip. I think the screw made a permanent indent into the plastic. It’s on there fine right now but I’m kind of afraid to remove it now in case I did damage something. Is there anything I can look for damage wise and if I did damage the threads, is it ruined?
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No, probably not without removing it. If it were mine & I was worried about it, I would remove it and double check everything. If the threads look good, great. If not, chase them with a tap. You may see a slight distortion internally in the grip but I wouldn’t worry about. If its deep or cracked, I’d use a washer. Clean off the threads, apply fresh Loc-Tite & snug it up. You shouldn’t need two hands.
I probably should mention that there may/may not be a torque spec, however, I don’t know what it is at the moment. Others may chime in if they feel it’s critical.
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The magpul screws with the hard blue threadlocker preapplied are hard to screw all the way in because you have to force the thredlock stuff down into the threads of the receiver. That stuff is hard, not like the liquid stuff you apply and that gums up later.
All the Magpul grips I have done (which are a bunch) have been hard when the thread lock stuff starts into the receiver.
Same experience here with the miad. I actually thought I had it tight, then after handling it later realized it was wobbly a d had to go back and tighten in a lot more. The whole time I was thinking I stripped the screw or something was going to snap.
I never use the flathead screw that comes with the magpul grips, just reuse the oem hex screw, the force it takes to put it on makes me feel like im crossthreading something.
Yep, that Magpul crap is the devil. Lately mine have been coming with yellow loctite on them.
At one point it was so bad with the MIAD screws, Magpul was offering free un-loc-tited screws to those that were having issues.
There was a known problem with the supplied screws with the hardened loc-tite.
After one try I stopped - you should never need that much force dealing with aluminum.
I just bought a bunch of proper hex screws and blu loc-tited them myself, as others have suggested.
Found the culprit. It was eating me alive not checking it tonight before u went to bed. Come to find out, it was a bent screw Magpul gave me with the Miad. I can’t believe I didn’t see it before putting it in. It was pretty warped. After removing it I threw it away and it won’t be going back into the receiver. After inspection, both threads on receiver along with screw looked normal so I’m happy I didn’t do any damage. I put the stock PSA parts kit grip back in for now and that screw went in like butter.
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Same here.