Yugo M48 Firing Pin repair

[toolness1]

I posted a pic of my messed up firing pin a while back but can't find it anywhere now.

Here's the story:
Purchased a Yugo M48 off Gunbroker for $175 a month or two ago. Everything was in great shape except the firing pin. The tip of it was missing some material. It was very strange.

I searched around for a reasonably priced firing pin, but the cheapest I ever found was 50 bucks, and I didn't feel like spending almost 1/3 the cost of the rifle on one part...

Someone here suggested to have a welder build up the tip. I took it to work and asked some guys in maintenance. I showed them a proper firing pin, and gave them the broken one.

They did build it up for me, but sharpened it into a point for some reason. Not a huge deal, just made it a lot more difficult to shape it back.


I brought it home and got to work on it. I used a combo of a Drill press, hand drill, needle files, and sandpaper to shape it as best I could.

I measured it vs. a good firing pin throughout to check progress.

Now that I am done, I am happy and expect that it will work just fine. The protrusion is .062 (less actually than the "good" pin which I have used many times) The diameter is within spec also.

I plan to test it first with some light cast loads just to make sure everything is OK.

I thought I would share some pictures to help someone in the future, as well as get any suggestions or criticism for next time!


The pictures are:

Original damaged firing pin tip

Tip after my friend worked on it.

Setup in the press

Progress check

And the final pic is my repaired example on the bottom, and a stock example on top.

 

[reverendbeer]

I posted a pic of my messed up firing pin a while back but can't find it anywhere now.

Buy any Mauser firing pin. Adjust to fit.

For realz....Almost all of them are 90% identical.

 

[toolness1]

Buy any Mauser firing pin. Adjust to fit.

For realz....Almost all of them are 90% identical.

Yugos are intermediate actions and the firing pins are not interchangeable.

That's why their firing pins are so expensive and hard to find.

I would have had to shorten the rear of a 98 Mauser pin, then cut/machine a new groove. This was easier for the tools I have on hand.

Here's a Yugo pin on the left, K98 on the right. The front of the pins are even, this is to show the difference in length and machining for the rear.

 

[iH8DemLibz]

Good save.

 

[toolness1]

Good save.

Thanks.

No WAY would I have gone through that if I could have just swapped out another cheap K98 pin. Not for a mismatched Yugo M48!

 

[tommy gunn]

I broke my fireing pin on my m48 thru my own stupidity. Got a new one from sarco in pennsylvania for 30 bucks. Bought 4 of em for back ups in case I have another fit of stupidity and do it again.

 

[toolness1]

I broke my fireing pin on my m48 thru my own stupidity. Got a new one from sarco in pennsylvania for 30 bucks. Bought 4 of em for back ups in case I have another fit of stupidity and do it again.

I probably would have ordered one for 30 bucks....but I like working on stuff so this was a good learning experience.

I think I'll grab one as a spare.

Thanks for the heads up! I checked a bunch of different parts stores but didn't think to check SARCO.

 

[tommy gunn]

I probably would have ordered one for 30 bucks....but I like working on stuff so this was a good learning experience.

I think I'll grab one as a spare.

Thanks for the heads up! I checked a bunch of different parts stores but didn't think to check SARCO.

The ones at sarco are labeled wrong on their website. It says yugo k98. I called to varify. It sticks out the back of the bolt a little bit but it works just fine. I've fired about 200 rounds with it and no problems yet.

 

[damifinowfish]

check Ebay

I found one for my project mauser

 

[jjones88]

glad my suggestion worked! Stinks they filed to a point though.

After taking this welding course, I'm amazed at all the stuff I've tossed over the years that I could have saved. Of course time = money but a welder and files / grinding can save a lot of things

 

[BuildnBurn]

Something else that would work if you have access to a lathe is cut off the tip, drill a hole in the firing pin and silver solder a piece of drill rod in its place and shape to fit.

 

[toolness1]

check Ebay

I found one for my project mauser

Was this an intermediate length Yugo firing pin? How much was it?

I found several on eBay over the last two months. The cheapest was $50 and that's too much. They are actually quite hard to find. Besides SARCO, I was hunting and calling places and nobody had any for less than $50..

So, I decided I would do the work instead of pay almost a third the price of the gun.

Sent from my XT901 using Tapatalk

 

[toolness1]

The ones at sarco are labeled wrong on their website. It says yugo k98. I called to varify. It sticks out the back of the bolt a little bit but it works just fine. I've fired about 200 rounds with it and no problems yet.

Sticks out the back? Hmm....sounds fishy.

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[toolness1]

glad my suggestion worked! Stinks they filed to a point though.

After taking this welding course, I'm amazed at all the stuff I've tossed over the years that I could have saved. Of course time = money but a welder and files / grinding can save a lot of things

Yeah worked great, thanks!

I need to bug the maintenance guys on some slow nights to teach me how to weld. I would love to learn.


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[toolness1]

Something else that would work if you have access to a lathe is cut off the tip, drill a hole in the firing pin and silver solder a piece of drill rod in its place and shape to fit.

I did see someone that had done it that way.

The thing is, I imagined in my head a welder dropping two little beads on the tip where it was missing material (see first pic). Then it taking just a few minutes to crime that back down to the rounded tip....

I thought machining the top off and adding drill rod sounded way more complicated than it needed to be. Since such a small amount ofaterial was missing.....

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[tommy gunn]

Took some pics to show the difference between the old and new.

The broke one is on the bottom. This is the original broken one in the bolt.

This is the new one in the bolt.

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[toolness1]

Thanks for taking those pics.

You know, it looks like someone machined that out of a full length 98 Mauser pin (K98, VZ4, etc)

When you look at the butt end of the Yugo vs K98 pin I posted, the difference in length looks the same as the ones you posted.

Looks like they might have machined off the rear notch, and just added a new one on the inside, then left the overall length the same.

Are there any markings on the one you got from SARCO?

 

[Melnic]

NICE!

 

[toolness1]

NICE!

Thanks!

I have a minor concern, the diameter of the pin is within spec but does show a tiny gap in the firing pin hole.

I will use a "mousefart" cast load to test it and examine the primers as I work up to stronger loads.

I have a Mosin with a much worse gap and I've shot everything in it with no problems. But it does slightly crater.

 

[tommy gunn]

Thanks for taking those pics.

You know, it looks like someone machined that out of a full length 98 Mauser pin (K98, VZ4, etc)

When you look at the butt end of the Yugo vs K98 pin I posted, the difference in length looks the same as the ones you posted.

Looks like they might have machined off the rear notch, and just added a new one on the inside, then left the overall length the same.

Are there any markings on the one you got from SARCO?

I honestly never really payed atttention to it. I was just so happy to finally have one I threw it in the gun and never thought about it. I broke the original the day I got the gun and it took me almost a year to find a new 1. Ill check in the morning when I get home from work.