Dillon 650 case wedge between position 1 and 2

[Venti30]

Hi all,

I've had my Dillon 650 for about 4 months, and have loaded 3-4,000 rounds thus far.

Recently, I've found that while cycling the press (handle forward, shell plate downward), and the shell plate rotates I'm getting intermittent case jam midway through the indexing. The case lodges between the shell plate and the spring arm mounted on the primer assembly. When this happens, it seems that the case partially come out of the shell plate just enough to get hung up there.

Specs: 9 mm caliber kit installed (this is all that's ever been on this press) Mixed range brass that at the part of the cycle the case is jamming, would've just been resized. Inspection of the offending cases shows no problem with the case that would lead you to believe that it's the cause. Extractor grooves in good condition, etc.

I am not a speed oriented re-loader so I don't think I cycle the press too quickly. In subsequent jams, I was cycling slower than my normal pace but it still occurred.

When the problem first occurred, the case freed up probably from stopping the lever cycle at time of jam resistance or that I instinctively backed off just a touch. The case slipped back into the shell plate where it belongs, which let the shell plate snap loose and of course ejects roughly half of the powder in the cases that just indexed to positions 3 and 4.

I slowed down my press cycle rate to make sure centrifugal force wasn't causing the offending case to come out of the shell plate case slot, but it still periodically happens.

Has anyone experienced this and if so how did you address it?

Thanks in advance!

[jmorris]

Does it happen on every stroke or 1 out of 5?

If it’s not every stroke you might have something in the groove that the rim fits into, like a little hunk of corncob or something that is pushing the case outward. A toothpick is good for clearing this area of debris. FWIW it likely won’t be between #1 and #2 where it’s binding if this is the problem because the station #2 locator is the arm you are talking about and it is spring loaded, so it would just move out of the way (make sure your moves freely when pushing on it outward from an empty station #2 with your finger).

There is an adjustment for it to properly locate the case in station #2 though on page 39.


This is assuming the case feed slide is adjusted per page 37 & 38 of the manual.

http://dillonhelp.com/Dillon%20Manua...l-May-2007.pdf

If it’s all the time I would be looking at the station 1 locator as it might not be the index rather the new inbound case dragging.

[Seamaster]

Believe Jmorris is correct, Also make sure station one feeder system is properly lubed, Dillon has a nice video at their website showing how to do it, explains things better than the manual, they have several videos on the 650 that I found very helpful. At station 2, make sure primer locator tab is properly adjusted.

[Venti30]

Hi Jmorris and Seamaster,

Thanks for your thoughts!

It is more infrequent than 1 out of 5, I'd estimate that it happens once per 50 or so rounds.

Because I didnt understand what was causing it, I held out the cases that got stuck (just before they reach the metal spring "keeper" that is part of the primer assembly. The cases were different head stamps, WIN, SPEER, etc. None of the case extractor rings or case shapes appeared to be at fault. Because I didn't know what the heck was going on, I took the shell plate and primer assy apart to clean, inspect and generally investigate and did not see anything at the time. Reassembled and thought I had it licked, but it occurred again roughly 100 rounds later.

It did not however dawn on me to check the case insertion depth at position one which I will review and adjust. I guess I didn't think of looking at it because I wasn't experiencing any issues aligning with the sizer/deprimer die.

I appreciate your thoughts and will look at the adjustment and lubrication that you guys were nice enough to remind me of.

Thanks, and have a great day.

[Venti30]

I wish I had the presence of mind to take a picture when it occurred, but this image has a red circle where the cases periodically slip out of the shell plate and jam up against the arm of the keeper spring leading to station 2.



https://drive.google.com/open?id=1cm...v_ewUG95x7TEPa

[Seamaster]

Is the shell plate properly adjusted down? I tighten the bolt down by hand all the way until it stops, then back it off about 2 to 3 whiskers(1/8 turn or so) than tighten set screw on the side.

[Venti30]

Seamaster,

Yes, as part of trying to see what the cause is, I've run the plate both a touch tight, and a touch loose from what I'd call the normally successful adjustment and had issues on both sides of the zero point of adjustment. Also slowed my press cycling down (but don't think I run the press fast to begin with).

I plan to tinker with it more this evening and start with case insertion slide lube, double check spring adjustment on primer assy.

In reviewing the issue, and comments you guys were nice enough to make, I'm realizing that I've probably been slow to re-lubricate the press. Honestly I haven't lubed anything in the 4 months I've had it.

[Seamaster]

Reba McEntire playing softly in the background also helps.

[BigJimP]

I'm wondering if you have a partially removed spent primer still in the case when it is jamming.

Once in a while --- the pointed pin on the depriming die in station 1 will stick into the spent primer ...deprime the case / and because the point on the pin sticks in the primer, instead of the spent primer dropping into the chute, then the pin will suck it partly back up into the case ...and the case will jam between stations 1 and 2..

As it sticks in between positions 1 and 2 ...you can sometimes move it back and forth and it will drop out of the case...( its a pain in the butt ) --- and the solution is to blunt the tip with a file..( just a little ). I used to have it happen a lot../ and by trial and error blunting the pin a little took care of it.

[Venti30]

Hi Big Jim,

I ran into that problem when I dedicated a tool head to a universal decapper. The "pulled back in" primers drug against the press body (under the shell plate) and gave me fits. I found this to happen with both a Dillon and later a Lee universal decapper.

After some reading later, I heard of folks filing the end of the pin, although I havent tried it yet.

In the situation I've described, when I pulled out the offending case(s), there was no primer present, and as far as I know hadn't fallen into the press, under the plate but of course that could have happened during the disturbance/freeing the case up without me seeing it.

All good suggestions, thank you guys for being great reloading community members.

[jmorris]

Your photo in #5, that arm is spring loaded and even if contacted old move out of the way with less pressure than it would take to lock up the press.

Is the arm in a bind or will it freely move? How are you having to clear the malfunction?

As you are taking out the cases that are causing the malfunctions and setting them aside, if you load nothing except the problem cases into the feed tube and try them again, does each and everyone still cause a problem or is it once again random?

[Venti30]

I’m going to make some adjustments, lubricate some areas that frankly I’ve been slack on maintaining.

The place where the case gets wedged is at what I’d call the base of the spring arm. To clear the wedged case, I’ve had to manually rotate the shell plate back towards position 1, and sometimes just relieving the tension on the lever allows the tension on the shell plate to snap forward. This is when the cases that have indexed too rapidly due to the snap during that “snap motion” puke their powder all over the place.

I suppose for me, the first time or two, I thought it was just a fluke thing since I hadn’t experienced this before that evening, so I inspected the cases, but discarded them even though I didn’t see anything wrong with them. In my mind, I’ve got a few silly rules that may not be rational, but there they are none the less. 1. If cases (for whatever reason) end up on the floor and I don’t watch them come to a rest and pick them up immediately, but notice them later for some reason, I discard them. 2. If I experience any jam, misfeed or issue that includes irregular contact with the press or dies, I discard the involved cases. 3. (And not related to this issue) if I drop any live primer(s), everything stops until I can account for them. Possibly quirky rules but I always lean towards safety and quality over speed, in that order.

[Seamaster]

Its been awhile and not sure I'm recalling all the details properly but, I did have issue where the primer indexing arm was not advancing the primer index all the way forward and you were not able to push the handle to the rear as you would normally do to seat the primer. Check the position of the primer index plate when jammed, see if you can manually advance it, if necessary, easy enough to do using your index finger.

If you haven't lube things in awhile also check to see if your primer cam is not worn down and not advancing primer index arm properly, without lube it will wear down pretty quickly.

[jmorris]

Wouldn’t be the indexing arm for the primer disk as it would already be back from the up stroke and coming off the ramp on the way down.

[Venti30]

Alright, so I lubed and checked adjustments on everything I could think of, and ran a couple hundred 9mm/124 grain this afternoon. In 200 rounds, had two occurrences of the case wedge between #1 and #2 positions. Video linked and attached.

https://youtu.be/3NCCeOi46p8

[Road_Clam]

Are you positive the hangup is at station 2 ? I had the exact same issues when my 650 was new. My issue was the looped guide rod that lays on top of the shell plate was cocking and jamming the finished round into slot upon exit. Not sure if you've investigated this as a possible cause but I learned to bend my shell extractor wire so it simply lays perfect flat on top of the shell plate. This allows ONLY the very bottom of the casing to contact the wire and smoothly slide the round out of the slot and down the exit chute.

[jmorris]

From your video the case isn’t staying in the shell plate. See the screen capture from the video you posted.



I’d be calling 1-800-223-4570 tomorrow if I were you and getting other parts on the way.

That is unless the “problem brass” has a .380 headstamp.


You have one of the “new frame” 650’s and I haven’t had a chance to mess with them much but they should be the same in function. Your cases all around seem to be pretty far out of the shell plate and if it’s not in the shell plate, all bets are off...

[Seamaster]

Loaded a couple hundred 9mm on my 650 last night, the cases stay fully seated in the shell plate, a call to Dillon I guess, wish I could've been more help. If they provide a solution, let the rest of us know.

[Venti30]

Following up for the benefit of anyone experiencing the same.

I contacted Dillon, and they hadn’t heard of this before, but after going through some stuff on the phone, they sent me a new tool head base, the large silver housing thats under the shell plate, and the alignment tool along with a few parts to go with.

During disassembly which I wasn’t able to get to until this week, I found the plastic indexer ring was broken and replaced it from my spare parts kit. Lesson there is, I was glad that I had purchased that spare parts kit so if you haven’t gotten yours, I recommend having it.

Since then, I’ve loaded 500 rounds with no recurrence of this case coming out of the shell plate and getting jammed.

Visual inspection of the base assembly (unsure of its actual name and too lazy to look it up) didn’t show anything unusual so I believe it to be strictly related to the plastic indexer for lack of finding anything else.

I will also add that the Dillon rep was really good to work with and I’d rate their handling of my case as 5 stars!

Many thanks to the folks that posted replies.

[Seamaster]

Thanks for the update. The spare parts package has bailed me out a couple of times.