Help!!! Cam and Rail Alignment Question
Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 6:47 pm
Can one of you experienced builders give me some advice please? I'm in the process of rewelding an M53 receiver. The three rear receiver pieces have been welded. The rails fit nicely inside it and the bolt glides smoothly through it.
Today, I tacked the shroud to the rear and bolted in the rails to check the fit. Everything seems fine except the alignment of the tabs on the insides of the rail and the camming piece. I'm not sure they are okay. Do the rail tabs need to be exactly centered on the camming piece tabs? The tabs inside the cam are wider than the tabs in the rails and as you can see, they aren't perfectly aligned. However, the bottom face of the rail tabs does not extend below the bottom face of the camming piece tabs. Is this acceptable or do I need to fix it? Both sides are the same but I could only get an acceptable photo one side. I also installed the barrel and cycled the bolt to see if the rollers would lock and they did. However, I noticed that the bolt head jumped slightly when the grooves engaged the cam tabs.
If y'all think I need to fix this alignment problem, then I have another question. The photos below show that the rails are tightly touching the top inside surface of the receiver. I can't move the rails ups to improve the alignment problem. And yes, the rails are located on the correct sides. The thinner portions are up under the feed tray section of the receiver. So my question is how do I improve the alignment if it is needed? Grind some of the metal of the top of the receiver so that the cam drops lower? Or grind the tops of the rails a little thinner?
Thanks in advance for the help
Today, I tacked the shroud to the rear and bolted in the rails to check the fit. Everything seems fine except the alignment of the tabs on the insides of the rail and the camming piece. I'm not sure they are okay. Do the rail tabs need to be exactly centered on the camming piece tabs? The tabs inside the cam are wider than the tabs in the rails and as you can see, they aren't perfectly aligned. However, the bottom face of the rail tabs does not extend below the bottom face of the camming piece tabs. Is this acceptable or do I need to fix it? Both sides are the same but I could only get an acceptable photo one side. I also installed the barrel and cycled the bolt to see if the rollers would lock and they did. However, I noticed that the bolt head jumped slightly when the grooves engaged the cam tabs.
If y'all think I need to fix this alignment problem, then I have another question. The photos below show that the rails are tightly touching the top inside surface of the receiver. I can't move the rails ups to improve the alignment problem. And yes, the rails are located on the correct sides. The thinner portions are up under the feed tray section of the receiver. So my question is how do I improve the alignment if it is needed? Grind some of the metal of the top of the receiver so that the cam drops lower? Or grind the tops of the rails a little thinner?
Thanks in advance for the help