M1A match rifle not cycling

[DaveL]

Thanks for the extensive information Richard.
Yes, I did check the spindle. That was the first place I went. Everything checked out fine. No changes after failure.
As for the -34 manual, we went through all those things with no joy. No binding after failure, the piston measures .002 smaller than .500, the same as my other pistons I have measure, could see no bent or misaligned parts.
The rifle was advertised as "new unfired" from an FFL on Gunbroker. Checked the bolt roller and cleaned the bolt with a sonic cleaner. It was totally cleaned and correctly lubed before the first shot was fired.
I will update when the rifle comes back.
Again, thanks Richard for trying to help.
DaveL

[DaveL]

Update:
My shooting buddy just got an invoice from Springfield stating the rifle was in the mail, on it's way home, no charge. The invoice states they "opened up the gas port" and "tested with 40 rounds". I'll post the results after our trip to the range this weekend. (Fingers crossed)
DaveL

[Richard H Brown Jr]

DaveL:

"Opened the Gas Port" Uh, ohtay. On the barrel or on the gas cylinder or the gas cut off spindle? Or all three? Might be that the barrel drilling uses a pilot drill bit to first make a small hole so as to not mar the inside of the barrel, and it was a 'Monday Morining, Friday Afternoon' part that got mislaid after the pilot hole was drilled. If it was me, I'd have called SA and ask to talk to the gunsmith that worked on it for more info.


R. Brown

[DaveL]

Last update:
We finally made it to the range. The rifle ran flawlessly. My buddy is happy now and isn't interested in the particulars of the repairs. So no more detailed explanations will be forthcoming. Thanks to all who tried to help on this thread.
DaveL

[nf1e]

Thanks DaveL. Glad they found the starter rope and got the thing running for your friend.

Semper Fi
Art

[DaveL]

Yuck Yuck Yuck! :-)
Art, I've been an Auto mechanic for 40 years. If a thing works, it's "running", with or without a pull rope. :-)
A final thanks to all those who tried to help.
DaveL

[bruce]

It is a Springfield M-1A Match Rifle. Send it to Springfield and have them fix the problem. After all, they made it. They have the equipment to figure out what is or is not working correctly. Sincerel. bruce.


Just saw that Springfield fixed the problem. Good! Sincerely. bruce.

[Richard H Brown Jr]

DaveL

Try and convince your pal to get the full repair info from SA. It would be helpful to other people who own SA M1A's, that might have the same problem in the future, to have the solution archived here under Problems and Resolutions.

R. Brown

[Griff Murphey]

My reply has absolutely nothing to do with this particular situation but I have a Browning copy of a Winchester 1886 that would not fire if the temperature dropped below about 32 deg. F. This occurred once on a hunting trip and again really badly at a lever action match we organized. It was early March and in blowing snow! We had some big trash barrels at the old Fort Worth Rifle and Pistol club and these were often ignited for the shooters to warm by and I had to hold my 1886 over the fire to get it to shoot. I sent it back to Browning and it came back cured but they did not tell me what they did to it.

Texas weather can be crazy, I shot a CMP match once on Holy Saturday before Easter at TACPRO in blowing snow!