M1 garand failure to feed

[nhyrum]

Originally Posted by Unclenick

Nhyrum,



Does the bolt lock back after the last round and empty clip eject? Since the gun worked fine before you tore it down and reassembled it, I assume it does that, and this demonstrates there is nothing wrong with the gas cylinder, its spring, or the operating rod.



Locking back after clip ejection proves the bolt is moving back far enough to pick up a fresh round. It sounds to me like you installed a part upside down, which spoils the gun's ability to accelerate the magazine follower up fast enough to get a round in place for pickup before the bolt is already over the top of the magazine and heading back into battery. I know I did this once when I was new to the gun, but it was over forty years ago, and I've forgotten exactly how I did it. It may have been the little piece pinned into the operating rod catch assembly that I flipped over.



Yep. That's it. Looking at the blueprint, that part is called the accelerator and it helps accelerate the follower upward.

No, the bolt doesn't even go back far enough to eject a clip.

I really do think that I've just assembled it wrong, I'll look at it the manuals and make sure I get everything in correctly

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[Unclenick]

Edit:

I knew this had come up before. Here's a thread where a backward follower was a problem. However, reading the last post, it looks like the operating rod catch (drawing below) was not correctly oriented to have the hook clear properly, so he had a couple of issues you can check.


Edit, Edit:

For those curious about the accelerator issue, here's the gummint drawing showing its correct orientation in the operating rod catch:

[nhyrum]

Sorry for taking forever, gun is a little buried.

I believe I have the accelerator in correctly.


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[jcj54]

The parts in the picture are assembled correctly.

[nhyrum]

Originally Posted by jcj54

The parts in the picture are assembled correctly.

Thanks. I'll check what @unclenick mentioned about making sure the op rod catch was clearing and set properly

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[musketjon]

Screw the gas cylinder lock back on all the way and then just back it off enough to time at the 6:00 position. By backing it off 2 whole turns, it is blocking some of the barrel gas port hole, hence the short-stroking.

Jon

[nhyrum]

Originally Posted by musketjon

Screw the gas cylinder lock back on all the way and then just back it off enough to time at the 6:00 position. By backing it off 2 whole turns, it is blocking some of the barrel gas port hole, hence the short-stroking.



Jon

I initially had the problem with it screwed all the way in. With it screwed all the way in, from photos I shared, it appeared it was too far back. I've tried it all the way in (which is really more like very lightly torqued after making contact - like 5 degrees of rotation), backed off a turn, or backing off till it lines up again but not torqued, and backed off an additional turn

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