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Posted: 3/30/2006 7:28:14 AM EDT
| My son (son-in-law) has an AR with a lower that was made in Minn. The name appears to be Hesse. I have replaced the takedown pin, takedown detent and detent spring with new items, yet when I pull the takedown pin to its detent position to remove the bolt carrier, the takedown pin and detent fall out of the lower. Is this a "bad" lower or do I need to contact the manufacturer?? Any help or advice is greatly appreciated. |
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Front or rear detent pin? If front, the detent should have been a PITA loading it into the channel before you were able to slip the detent past, and into the receiver channel. If the rear, then you should have loaded the piviot pin slot to the back), installed the detent, installed the spring, then slowly lowered the stock down to make sure that the spring was forced/retained into the receiver channel. Best guess on the rear detent/spring is that they may have been loaded backward (detent towards the stock), or the back of the spring did not compress into the receiver channel, and is now the tail end of the spring is kinked between the receiver stock and butt stock. www.ar15.com/content/guides/assembly/lower/ |
| Thanks for the quick response. But the spring and detent have been installed correctly as I had reviewed the guide/lower assembly prior to replacing the items and also while installing the new ones. The takedown pin itself when in its pulled position shows the detent pin resting in the recessed portion of the takedown pin as normal. When you then pivot the upper open, causing the lower to jostle a bit, the takedown pin falls out of the side of the lower and the detent falls out of the hole where the takedown pin normally sits. It almost seems as if the takedown pin hole on the right side of the lower is too large. |
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Going to have to come straight out with it, Hesse when belly up due to producing and selling some total crap items. If the pivot pinhole in the receiver was drilled too large, then you are screwed trying to use the standard takedown pin. Even if you added a spacer in between the spring/detent to increase the tension to the pivot pin, as soon as the pin cams when opened, it’s still going to fall out. The only thing that comes to mind is one of the wedge type pins that you would need to use an Allen wrench to install/remove as a permanent solution to the problem. http://www.bushmaster.com/shopping/gunsmith/artp.asp Now having posted the pin, and you seeing the price, if the receiver was one of the less than stellar casted unit, best to just leave the pin as is without the detent and spring. You can use a Accuwedge to increase the tension of the upper to the lower, and this in it’s self will hold the pivot pin in place when the pin pushed is all the way threw. As for the reason that I mention this cheap band-aid over using the $40 dollar pin is that the Hesse receivers are know to crack at the rear where the receiver extension installs. If/when this happens, you can use the $40 you save by not buying the pin and just buy a New quality replacement receiver for under $100. http://www.fulton-armory.com/AccuWedge.html P.S. Guys, why do I always have to be the one that pisses on every ones parade. Just once, it would nice if someone else would step up once in a while to pull the trigger. I understand that I took the job of being mod and all, but enough of these deathblows to the Newbies and no one will every being showing me the love.  Added since you will want to check the size of the pivot pin, and the receiver pivot hole size before your final decision. http://www.biggerhammer.net/ar15/pins.html http://www.ar15.com/content/manuals/lowerBlueprint.pdf Note: down load “adobe reader” if you can not get the bottom link to work. www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html |
But you do it so good! 
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Hey Dano, You didn't piss on this old GI's parade. I didn't buy that POS. I don't have these problems with my RRA. I may not have 6000+ posts, but I've been around for awhile. Maybe I'm confused, but I thought the MOD job meant you would step up to the plate when others couldn't or wouldn't. Thanks for the info, I guess my son-in-law will just have to buy a good stripped lower. |
5 paragraphs looks like he stepped up and nailed it,I doubt he got paid for his time. Get a CMT lower and be happy. 
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