I just got mine and it's not fitting. Was wondering if anyone has one on a SAR1 before I try to modify it to fit.

there should be a groove that you can put on the bottom lip of the reciever. you wont need to modify it. you just need to push it in there harder. the wooden peices have a tab that you fit in there, the tdi dont

Quoted: there should be a groove that you can put on the bottom lip of the reciever. you wont need to modify it. you just need to push it in there harder. the wooden peices have a tab that you fit in there, the tdi dont

Yeah I tried that, I cant get the sides of the reciever to go in. I'll try to eat a little bit of plastic away in till it fits.

Quoted: Quoted: there should be a groove that you can put on the bottom lip of the reciever. you wont need to modify it. you just need to push it in there harder. the wooden peices have a tab that you fit in there, the tdi dont Yeah I tried that, I cant get the sides of the reciever to go in. I'll try to eat a little bit of plastic away in till it fits.

Use a rubber mallet and tap it on. All of my lower fore arms needed a little tender loving care to get on.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: there should be a groove that you can put on the bottom lip of the reciever. you wont need to modify it. you just need to push it in there harder. the wooden peices have a tab that you fit in there, the tdi dont Yeah I tried that, I cant get the sides of the reciever to go in. I'll try to eat a little bit of plastic away in till it fits. Use a rubber mallet and tap it on. All of my lower fore arms needed a little tender loving care to get on.

Yeah I did that and it's on there, now I just need to find out why the cleaning rod won't go in another 1/4'' to lock in place.

yeh. the cleaning rod thing is weird. something about it doesn't hold the end down and it runs into the bottom part of the trunc. i've been trying to figure out the easiest way to get it to work, no luck yet. you can put the rod in there before you put the handguard on because of the way its made, but thats not an option every time you want to clean it(or...is....it? lol)

Quoted: yeh. the cleaning rod thing is weird. something about it doesn't hold the end down and it runs into the bottom part of the trunc. i've been trying to figure out the easiest way to get it to work, no luck yet. you can put the rod in there before you put the handguard on because of the way its made, but thats not an option every time you want to clean it(or...is....it? lol)

So the rod only goes in if you have it in place when you put the handguard on, but not if you put the handguard on first then try to put the rod in? I guess I can get another cleaning rod somewhere. I got a venilated top heat guard from Copes Dist. that doesn't wana go on too, any advice on getting that to go on?

yeh. its a weird problem with the cleaning rod. i imagine it has something to do with the fact that the TDI handguard doesn't have a guide for the cleaning rod to be in, so it lifts up in the back instead of going straight, thus running it into the bottom of the front trunc. luckily. its an ak and the cleaning rod is only for looks, so i just leave it on there and never think about it. lol.

when you say the vented hanguard wont go on there, i imagine that you mean when you try and lock it into place with that little lever it gets hung up. if thats the case, the best thing to do is to take out the top and get a metal file. just file down the place where the gas tube lock slides over. test, file more, test, file more. repeat until you have it so that it locks into place.

Yeah thats what I thought, nothing seems to wanna go on this rifle easy. I did get the SAW pistol grip on, would of been alot easier if I had someone holding that bushing in place. I bought a Dremmel and no instruction manual in the case so I have to take that back to Home Depot since I don't know how to use it, lol. I can't wait to see how many problems I'll have trying to get the muzzle threaded so I can install a brake or flash hider. I guess I'll get a flash hider since I'm left handed and the brake probally won't work for me.

I think it's the TDI lower handguard comes up higher than the original wood lower handguard and the top handguard can't go down all the way so I can't lock the gas tube in place.

perhaps. but the fix i mentioned will work because you are adjusting the ability of the tube to be set in there. just file off the top part where the locking level would contact and stop it from closing..get it down to where it does. easy fix. took me like 3 minutes.

Quoted: Yeah thats what I thought, nothing seems to wanna go on this rifle easy. I did get the SAW pistol grip on, would of been alot easier if I had someone holding that bushing in place. I bought a Dremmel and no instruction manual in the case so I have to take that back to Home Depot since I don't know how to use it, lol. I can't wait to see how many problems I'll have trying to get the muzzle threaded so I can install a brake or flash hider. I guess I'll get a flash hider since I'm left handed and the brake probally won't work for me.

I disagree, I find this rifle to be the easiest gun to change stocks on.

I started with a stock sar1 and went to this:

Krebs did the brake for me. The stocks I did.


Then this:

I spent the extra money on a Krebs railed lower forearm.


I have since changed it again by going with a romy side folder and saw pistol grip.

That slant brake really doesn't do much for a semi auto.

Cigolon I filed that lip down on the bottom of the gas tube and it finally locked in place. Thanks for the help!

Drobs nice looking rifles! Getting the parts off was easy, just getting the upgrades on was a bitch. My SAR looks similar to yours. I have a ACE folding skelton stock, of course the TDI lower handguard, Kobra optics, and SAW grip. Where did you get those polymer mags at? I got some 30rd. bulgy polymer waffle mags and some 20rd. Hungry metal mags that fit good, but the three 30rd metal unknown origin that came with the rifle are a little wobbly but function. Also how much was it to have the brake installed? I don't like the forward grips to much, but was thinking about getting one to fire with the stock folded. Any I should stay away from?

sure, glad i was able to help. now post up a picture and lets see what it looks like.
all this talk just doesn't sit well with no picture. ;p
use imageshack if you need a host

Quoted: Cigolon I filed that lip down on the bottom of the gas tube and it finally locked in place. Thanks for the help! Drobs nice looking rifles! Getting the parts off was easy, just getting the upgrades on was a bitch. My SAR looks similar to yours. I have a ACE folding skelton stock, of course the TDI lower handguard, Kobra optics, and SAW grip. Where did you get those polymer mags at? I got some 30rd. bulgy polymer waffle mags and some 20rd. Hungry metal mags that fit good, but the three 30rd metal unknown origin that came with the rifle are a little wobbly but function. Also how much was it to have the brake installed? I don't like the forward grips to much, but was thinking about getting one to fire with the stock folded. Any I should stay away from?

The foreward grip thing was more of a convience item. I originally started with all K-var, and found while it was better than wood for rapid fire heat protection, it still wasn;t good. The foreward rail grip really protects you from the heat in both rapid fire and sunlight. I found that SAW pistol grip to be the most comfortable AK grip out there. Sure it's bubba but it's all function on this gun!

I forget what Krebs charged me but at the time ($125 something). I had the work done pre-end of ban. I worked at another gun shop with Brian, Kreb's operations guy and got a little deal. I see Krebs has gone to all production work now, no more custom work and is recommending Firing Line of Wyandotte, OK for custom AK work.  
www.krebscustom.com/breakingnews.html
Might be worth giving them a call.

My gunsmithing skills only go so far. Threading barrels (probably pretty easy) is over my head.

Going back to the topic, my foreward grip is TDI. As said before the lower railed forearm is Krebs. I've always stuck with what I believed to be quality-- Kvar, Krebs, Tapco. I saw that TDI forearm after I put the Krebs on. I recall back in the day, there were alot of crap floating around to modify theSKS. Most of it didn't work.

Question for you TDI owners, does the lower railed TDI forearm have a metal heat shield in it like K-Var does? Also can you drill out that cleaning rod hole?

I like the AK even more for the fact that it has a cleaning rod attached to it. I've been to a few AR15.com shoots where I was the only one that thought ahead and brought my GI AR cleaning rod kit. Bore snakes are good for cleaning but are useless for removing stuck cases on AR's.  

Thanks for information! Yeah I don't wanna experiment on my barrel either. I also would hate to spend that kind of money on this rifle, maybe I'll just try a pin on, it's only for looks anyway. I plan on getting another rifle probably an AK74 with a threaded barrel, bayonet lug etc.

I read K-Var's furniture was the best, and Tapco's wasn't so great, and quite a few people recommended the TDI lower tri rail forend. TDI's forend does not have any metallic heat shield, but sits pretty far from the barrel and has seven holes on the bottom about the size of shirt buttons. I haven't read anything about them melting and like I said quite a few people recommended it. I gotta see what I can do to make the cleaning rod work though, I guess AK cleaning rods are standard length but if I can get one about a 1/4" shorter then it would probably lock in place. I got the SAW pistol grip mainly so I could store the cleaning kit in it, otherwise I probally would of tried the TDI grip with the finger grooves.

Did you try tapping the cleaning rod into the hole? When mine didn't want to go all the way in I e-mailed my reseller and was told that TDI leaves the channel purposely tight and recommends that you gently tap the rod into the hole several times to open it up. I've used these on three AK's now and can say that once you do this, the rod does fit and fits better than the original wood forearms with no rattle.

HTH,
Mike

Quoted: Did you try tapping the cleaning rod into the hole? When mine didn't want to go all the way in I e-mailed my reseller and was told that TDI leaves the channel purposely tight and recommends that you gently tap the rod into the hole several times to open it up. I've used these on three AK's now and can say that once you do this, the rod does fit and fits better than the original wood forearms with no rattle. HTH, Mike

I've been playing with guns for awhile now and think every gun owner needs to own a rubber mallet! Makes things so much easier.

Quoted: Did you try tapping the cleaning rod into the hole? When mine didn't want to go all the way in I e-mailed my reseller and was told that TDI leaves the channel purposely tight and recommends that you gently tap the rod into the hole several times to open it up. I've used these on three AK's now and can say that once you do this, the rod does fit and fits better than the original wood forearms with no rattle. HTH, Mike

Yeah I tried that, the cleaning rod is hitting the receiver. I guess the rods not going into the opening in the receiver.

hey joe i got a nice stainless steel rod you can use(found it in the turnings pile)