Yup, it is broke clean in two. Took the bolt apart to clean out the accumulated crud and when the firing pin dropped out, the spring didn't look right. It had broken in half and the two pieces had threaded together and very short and not acting as a firing pin spring any longer.

I can buy one from Poly Technologies but at $12.95 plus shipping, I'd rather not.
Think the extra weight of the spring loaded type firing pin could cause problems if I just left the spring off? Another, cheaper source? A similar spring that could be substituted?

I'm thinking just leave it out. I have no way of knowing how long it has been broken anyway, and it gets fired pretty regularly and the spring has not been acting like a spring anyway, so what the heck.

What do you AK heads think?

I would just spend the $13 for a new OEM one. You can find a used Chinese firing pin on forums but not worth the time to hunt one down. Keep it OEM and drop the $13. High end rifles need to keep high end parts with them. Just be glad the bolt didn't break in 2 as I have seen but rare. That's a harder and more costly fix. Poly parts or you can take a look at gunbroker. If the $13 is really bothering you which for a tiny spring is a lot of dough, put a want to buy as up in the EE, sure a few people have some laying around in a parts bin.

Chris

What kind of round count you got through it?

Curious as i'm a polytech guy.

This one only has about 2000-2500 rounds through it. I don't detail strip the bolt every time I shoot it, so I have no idea when it broke. I'm sure it was broke the last time I had it out and it didn't seem to cause a problem. I just hate paying 13 bucks for little spring that seems to do pretty much nothing anyway.

Let the firing pin free float.I hate those spring loaded firing pins.

This is pretty much what I'm going with. it broke in two and threaded together to become too short to act as a spring anyway and caused no problems, so I really don't think it is needed with the Russian ammo that goes through it. Maybe if I fired something with softer primers, but I don't, so.............