What FAL parts are wise to keep on hand?  I have a SA58 made by DSA.  18 inch barrel.  



I was cleaning my FAL the other night and I noticed that my gas piston spring had broken.  A few revolutions of it had broken off and stuck to my piston at the top.  I have no idea when it broke.  But my rifle functioned perfectly all summer long, once I got my gas system where I wanted it.  

I've built three metric parts kits and the biggest problem for me has been worn gas system parts that are hard to get enough  gas to function.  A new gas tube and gas piston would be nice to have in the toolbox for the two I still own.  I did by new spring kits for my guns when they were cheap from TAPCO.  

Accuracy is another story I don't have time to write about other than one kit had a barrel with a worn muzzle.  I cut it down myself and the barrel shot 2 MOA with Portuguese surplus for a massive improvement for iron sight shooting.  This was my first kit and the hack gunsmith messed up the chamber end trying to do some voodoo magic on it.  A beer can washer/shim allowed the barrel to be mounted and headspaced properly by me after I took it from him.

One part that has broken on my three was the gas/grenade device that can shut off the gas for a grenade launcher.  I am not sure what happened there yet.  I bought another and I don't have a spare yet.  The problem might have been too long a gas piston but it's been too long for me to prove anything.

I've had a gas regulator sleeve split, a gas plug lever come apart, one of the springs in the FCG lost strength(can't remeber which),
Rat tail rivet in bolt carrier broke.
I've heard of firing pins breaking, bolts breaking.
I would get a set of spare, known good quality springs.

It was pretty simple a few years ago. Get a  spare kit, with maybe all the small parts out of a second. Now I would at minimum have 1 to 2 of each spring and pin. FCG to be double sure and gas system parts.

Spare magazines!

I have seen gas selectors, hammers, and extractors fail in my FALs.  I would also keep an extra of every spring in the rifle if I were you.

Best,
JBR

I'll second or third, maybe even fourth the gas system pieces. The only other issue I have ever personally experienced is the trigger group.