Removing staked castle nut?

[koalorka]

I have an LMT lower and I wanted to replace the 6-pos buffer extension with a 4-pos. Colt tube. The castle nut, however, seems staked at two points, is there any realistic chance of getting it off with a CAR wrench, or would I need to do some dremelling?

Thanks.

[rykyard]

Odd that this is my first post.

I was looking through old posts and this thread

https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=328

has the tool you need. gotm4 talks about the T.C.U wrench.


If the nut is torn up enough you'd be replacing it anyways, might as well dremel.

[Robb Jensen]

GotM4-Skunkworks will be making an AR/M4 stock tool that will work on all staked on, Loc-Tited on castle nuts, old style CAR stocks nuts and A1/A2 rifle receiver extensions very soon! Stay tuned!


In the mean time if you can't get a TCU wrench (he quit making the good ones).

Try these:



http://www.brownells.com/aspx/ns/sto...BUTTSTOCK+TOOL





These work sometimes but are easily broken.
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/ns/sto...4+STOCK+WRENCH

[LukeMacGillie]

I deal with this alot, as we have a large fleet of M4's and am putting on single point receiver end plates on a regular basis.

If you dont want to just replace the Castle nut and end plate, try to use a small chisel to remove the staking.

Make sure you go ahead and add that single point end plate while your at it, even if you dont like single points right now.

And make sure you put it all back togeather right! The one major malfunction of a gun at Pat's class at Quantico last weekend was caused by "User level Armorering" and the castle nut was put on backwards, leading to other problems.

[rob_s]

I've never had a problem just breaking it loose and overcomming the staking.

[LukeMacGillie]

I've never had a problem just breaking it loose and overcomming the staking.

If its an old style nut, with the hole in the "Center" aka a CAR-15/SMG type nut then yes its easy with a wrench with a hollow handled sledge for extra leverage. If its the "New" castle nut, not so easy. The smaller wrench that GotM4 posted is all thats readily available to me, and thus need to work smarter, or check my inventory of castle nuts and if ive got plenty, break out the dremel.

I understand that with personal carbines, reuse of as many parts as possible is the way to go for most folks.

[altav]

Chisel? Sledge? Dremel?

All you need to do is lay the lower receiver on a carpeted floor with the logo side up. Some put their left foot or knee on top of the magwell so that the lower receiver doesn't move, but I've never had to. Place your favorite AR multi tool (I use the cheap stamped steel version) on the castle nut and just loosen it up – you might have to put a little weight to it, but it’s as simple as that. No damage is done and all parts are reusable. I've used this simple method on ~40 Colt and LMT lowers and its worked every time.

[koalorka]

Chisel? Sledge? Dremel?

All you need to do is lay the lower receiver on a carpeted floor with the logo side up. Some put their left foot or knee on top of the magwell so that the lower receiver doesn't move, but I've never had to. Place your favorite AR multi tool (I use the cheap stamped steel version) on the castle nut and just loosen it up – you might have to put a little weight to it, but it’s as simple as that. No damage is done and all parts are reusable. I've used this simple method on ~40 Colt and LMT lowers and its worked every time.

Thanks for that, that's my standard flash hider removal method, I'll give it a try.

[koalorka]

After hammering at the damn thing for over 20 mins. I gave up. LMT has a really tough stake-job, the gouge displaces too much of the endplate metal for the thing to budge. All I've got is a steel CAR stock wrench, the $5 tool you can get on eBay. Bigger hammer or should I replace the wrench?

[Kisara]

Sometimes, even if you have the proper tools handy- Its just more fun to teach a stubborn castle nut a lesson.



Just cut a groove in, not down all the way into the threads. Stick a big screwdriver into the groove and twist hard. POP! Snaps right off. This works great for removing those pesky X-Brand nuts installed with Loctite.