Okay, but to this point in my life , my ARs have worked flawlessly, but today at the range I was getting a FTE, about every 10 rounds or so. The rifle has about 2000rds total. I use S&B ammo (I like, and have had no problems, so save the "its the ammo" crap) The rifle was dirty b4 goin to the range, but had plenty of CLP in it. so what would or could cause FTE, the extraction was fine. so what ya think. Im gettin ready to tear it apart and give it a good cleaning, I picked up a DPM extractor and ejector repair/PARTS kit. but hate to change parts that may be good, so what ya think.

Thanks for stopping by.

First, clean the rifle including stripping down the bolt and cleaning the extractor and ejector. Make sure that nothing has gotten under the extractor or clogged up the ejector. It every thing in clean and nothing appears to be worn but you are still having problems then:

90%+ FTE problems can be fixed by replacing the extractor spring. This is particularly true of Carbines due to the short, violent gas pulse. And if your going to replace it, replace it with one of the over powered ones. ALL my AR's have the over powered green springs from SAW. My Sgt. and several other Deputies had the same experience as you are having now. All I did to fix it was to install the over powered extractor spring. In every case but one (had a broken extractor) replacing the extractor spring fixed the problem.

I learned this in the Colt LE Armorer School and it has been proven true in my experience as and LEO Armorer and AR shooter.

Cool, thanks, I cleaned the hell out of the rifle, it was pretty dirty, I took bolt completely apart and cleaned it up, the spring and ejector/extractor were fine, I bought an extra incase, but ill shoot it and if it happens atleast once, ill change the ejector spring and extractor

I was having very similar problems with a new BMI 16" upper I put on my old 20" lower.  It appeared as if the case was falling off the extractor before the ejector was engaged.   I replaced the extractor spring with one of the heavy duty extractor springs with black insert from SAW also and have had zero problems in the 250 rounds fired since changing it out.



BTW,... the spring you want to change out is the extractor spring, not the ejector spring.

Yeah, I may check with Brownells and see what they have .

I too can vouch for the stronger extractor spring.  However, if you replace it with a new standard extractor and spring, it probably won't help.  I did this, and paid over $20 for a Colt extractor and spring,didn't help, but a new stronger spring was all i needed.

okay sounds like a plan, I jus found WOLFF extra power extractor springs, I couldnt find the SAW place, wasnt that the ppl that had like a 10page thread on how they didnt need our petty money, cause they deal with large contracts and are the only COLT ppl? jus curious. LoL.

Brownells or Bushmaster will have the spring you need. I won't do business or post the link to SAW after the post he made on this site.

The Wolff springs work just fine.  Bought a ten pack (one and a spare for all 5 ARs) a couple of years back.  Haven't had a problem w/any of them; even the 11.5 inch barrelled XM177E2 clone[:D]

NOOOOOOO! say this aint true! NOOOOOOOOO!


enough! is enough! I cannot take this ar15 reliabitily problems.





thats it Iam getting drunk tonight.

Hell, the 11.5 inch barrel didn't start causing problems until after 7 or 8 thousand rounds, and 15 years of use[:D].  The others never have. Just put the Wolff springs in 'em to avoid any possible failures.

On the other hand, why do you need an excuse to get smashed. Just do it 'cause you want to[:D]

Ken and Tina are good people. Ken just does not kiss ass and some around here can't take it. I have done business and will continue to do business with SAW. If you do not want to that is your choice.

[url]http://www.sawlesales.com/[/url]

Without getting involved in the "is he a good guy or a arrogant dipstick" controversy, the fact is that SAW has a minimum order policy that prevents you from just buying a spring setup or two. Apparently, there have been some people on site who have been able to talk the lady of the house into setting that rule aside for them, and gotten a less than minimum order shipped.  I wasn't one of them; maybe because I didn't sound sweet enough, plead hard enough, or ???? And I was unit armorer for security at a large federal agency at the time[:D]

Whatever the reason, I went to Wolff because they don't have such a policy, and have been a happy camper w/the results.

I have no problem w/anyone setting policies for how they're going to run their business. I'm just not wild about folks who set a policy, then selectively apply it. I don't need the aggravation.

Yeah I ordered the wolf one from Brownells along with some other stuff. Sorry, ppl may have had good business from SAW, but I remember that thread all too clearly, sorry , I jus cant do business with someone like that. If you have had good luck with them or anyone else , then by all means keep doing business, Im not badmouthing anybody, but certain reputations have superceded them, besides they dont need my petty 5 dollar business, they even said so. LoL.

Fail to eject (FTE) is not always a weak ejector spring isssue.
I have seen hi-speed video of what appeared to be FTE at normal speed (i.e., watch with the naked eye) and was very surprised to see the bolt coming rearwards without the fired case.  Then a mili-second lated here comes the empty case following the bolt.  Well the resulting "jam" made it appear that the extractor had done its job because the empty case was in the breech and not left in the chamber--right...wrong!
So once you clean the ejector spring hole, spring, etc., and you still have problems, replace the extractor spring.
Also, Preventive Maintenance (PM) of the ejector should include the procedures in the M16 Operator's Manual where you use an empty case hooked under the extractor to depress the ejector plunger with your thumb pressing on the empty case with a drop of CLP added to the ejector.  Your should do this every time you clean your AR.
By the way, those procedures are something I put in the manual in 1983 when we revised it for the A2.  In fact, the hand in the drawings is mine.

On my particular situation the empty shell was attached to the bolt face, so it failed to EJECT the round, but it EXTRACTED  fine out of the bore.

The number one FTE problem in an AR-15 is the extractor spring. I saw it time and time again in the Army. The Wolf spring, (or any stronger spring), is the way to go and should cure your problem.