Removing over-torqued castle nut

[jpmuscle]

Cut off wheel the nut and split it?

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[Wake27]

**** that castle nut. I spent about the last two hours drilling and hammering away. Now I have to order another tube, luckily I have extras of everything else though. Thanks MistWolf.


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[elephantrider]

Congrats on getting that nut off. That looked like a serious pain. You've got some nice tools there in the Magpul armor's wrench and Geissele Reaction Block, but I'll recommend the tools and method I use that eliminates the risk of over torquing it again.

I use a BCM KMR Barrel nut wrench and a torque wrench, or socket wrench as appropriate for installing or removing. I also use a cheap set of magnetic rubber padded vise jaws that can be bought off of ebay.

1. apply a small amount of anti-sieze to the exposed threads of the receiver extension just behind where it threads into the lower receiver.
2. visually line up the receiver extension in the middle of the indexing tab on the end plate, then tighten down the castle nut by hand while being careful to keep the receiver extension lined up.
3. clamp the receiver extension in a vise using the rubber padded jaws. Orient the receiver extension so that as the castle nut is tightened the stock adjustment track on the rec. extension is bearing against one side of the padded vise jaws so that it cannot rotate as you tighten.
4. Use a torque wrench with the BCM KMR Wrench to incrementally torque down the castle nut. I THINK (don't quote me on that) the max torque spec is 45lbs, but I usually find that ~35lbs is plenty.

A little more involved, but there is almost no chance of over-torquing or buggering anything, you know it is installed with sufficient torque, and it should not be too difficult to remove if necessary.

[Sqr]

A good strap wrench should be a part of any shooters tool kit.

[tb-av]

**** that castle nut. I spent about the last two hours drilling and hammering away. Now I have to order another tube, luckily I have extras of everything else though. Thanks MistWolf.


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Now you know why you need to stake it down! That sucker could have spun right off. Sorry, couldn't resist a little gallows humor.

You know what they say, when it rains it pours.

[elephantrider]

A good strap wrench should be a part of any shooters tool kit.

Doubt that a strap wrench would have helped at all in this case. What do you use a strap wrench for? I don't find myself needing one if I have the correct tools.

[Wake27]

Now you know why you need to stake it down! That sucker could have spun right off. Sorry, couldn't resist a little gallows humor.

You know what they say, when it rains it pours.

That actually crossed my mind several times haha. That thing never would've come off with normal use.

[Iraqgunz]

Can I assume that you used no anti-seize or similar on the threads?

[Wake27]

Can I assume that you used no anti-seize or similar on the threads?

No I actually did. I forget the brand but it was definitely anti-seize.

[Sqr]

Doubt that a strap wrench would have helped at all in this case. What do you use a strap wrench for? I don't find myself needing one if I have the correct tools.

A Wheeler strap wrench is a supplementary tool that can be used in conjunction with the dedicated tools for many items on an AR and should be part of a tool kit. The 'Wheeler Fine Gunsmith Equipment AR Armorers Professional Kit' comes with one as part of the package or the 'Wheeler Engineering Delta Series AR-15 Strap Wrench Non Marring 567839' can be purchased separately.

It can be used for hand guards, barrel nuts, buffer tubes and those pesky castle nuts that can be marked up.