WE AK-74U - was good, now bad

[vink]

Any luck with a guide for the installation of the npas?

[Brian McIlmoyle]

or a guide for swapping the trigger group... been looking online... found nothing.

got new T group today ( less than 24 hours after ordering from airsoftparts.ca )

and I'd like to install it ASAP

[Amos]

I've got one with a ra-tech steel parts kit, If I get time to work on it any time soon I'll make a guide.

[Brian McIlmoyle]

Installed the Trigger group..

it's not hard.. very nice parts...

down and dirty guide,

taking out the trigger Group..

WE smartly makes their trigger groups modular .. so the entire group can be removed from the receiver .

Remover the selector lever, and safety sear, ( pops out once the selector lever is removed)

knock out the front pin holding the trigger group to the receiver.. very nice pin.. with a spring clip retention.. nice quality,, this is the only "real pin" all others in the receiver are dummies.. don't be a dummy and bash at them for 10 minutes before you figure out they are not real

then take off the pistol Grip, the rear of the trigger group protrudes out the bottom of the receiver .. and the pistol grip retention screws into this.. Ingenious .. and a nice way to reduce the number of parts.

the whole trigger group pops out.

make sure you inspect the trigger group and determine how it goes back together before you pull it apart.
There are a number of springs that have to go back in in a certain orientation.

After you have inspected it .. you should have no trouble seeing how it works and installing the new parts.

The parts need a good work out before they will work smoothly.. I was getting light strikes on the valve knocker until I got about 100 rounds through it

[ViR]

Yes, those fake pins are a bitch.
Brian, did you see a little spring in trigger, where does it go?

[Brian McIlmoyle]

Originally Posted by ViR

Yes, those fake pins are a bitch.
Brian, did you see a little spring in trigger, where does it go?

under the front side claw.. you will see a hole in the bottom of it..

[TPM001]

The way an AK ought to be:



RA-Tech wood furniture. Nice finish. Nice fit! No mods. 20 minute install...simple swap.

[ViR]

I dont think wooden pistol grip was never used on that gun..

[Brian McIlmoyle]

Originally Posted by TPM001

The way an AK ought to be:



RA-Tech wood furniture. Nice finish. Nice fit! No mods. 20 minute install...simple swap.

yeah except that AK was never that way.... nice wood up front.. but you want a plum plastic pistol grip.. and dump the well flange

[TPM001]

Yeah you're right. It actually looks better with the black pistol grip. I'm keeping the mag well flange tho...

[TPM001]

Here's a quick install guide for the wooden parts from RA-Tech.

You're gonna need a punch kit and a hammer.

First step is to remove the flash hider (edit: discovered, in hindsight, that you may not need to remove the flash hider and that the whole front sight assembly can be removed with the flash hider still on... So this step is optional). Be mindful of the spring and pins.





Next, loosen or remove the set screw located here:



Next, knock out this pin.:



Ok. Now we're ready to remove the front sight assembly along with the front cap. Using a punch tool, carefully tap around both the upper and lower front caps. Use something to cushion the tip of the punch tool so that you don't scratch the metal finish.



Eventually, it should come out like this:





Simply swap the plastic hand guard with the wood parts. You may have to massage the parts into the caps. I installed two of these kits to both my AK's and both needed some gentle massaging into the correct position. Also keep in mind that the manufacturing tolerances of these wooden parts are not super precise, but wood is somewhat flexible so you should be able to make pieces fit in place. Sand down the pieces if you need to (for my two kits, I never needed to).





Next part is slightly tricky but not difficult. It's important that when putting it all back together again, that you correctly orient the top piece into the receiver first before maneuvering the bottom piece into place. Then use a punch to gently (and with a paper towel as a cushion) tap the pieces into place.







Once firmly in place, put all the parts back together again. I suggest using loc-tite on the set screw so that it won't go loose.


Ok. If you want to go ahead with replacing the pistol grip with the wooden piece, it's a very simple matter of removing the screw and replacing the part.





And voila:





You're good to go! The parts fit very well. There is no wobble. There's a lacquered finish on the wood pieces, brown with a bit of an orange-ish tint. Looks nice but leaves a slippery feel to the handguard. The wonderful advantage of real wood is that you can sand it down and add your own finish to it. I might end up doing that, but for now, I'm really enjoying the look of my AK's.

I hope this was helpful to you.

[TPM001]

In hindsight, you can probably leave the flash hider on and still be able to remove the handguard. Just start from removing the set screw.

[Latvian291]

I will have to cut the flange off mine. Those screws were so tight I can't undo them. Stripped one of the hex screws trying to remove the flange.

[TPM001]

So after enhancing the stock AK with:

1) Ra-Tech steel trigger parts ($115)
2) Ra-Tech open bolt NPAS valve ($19)
3) Ra-Tech hop-up rubber ($9)
4) Ra-Tech wood handguard ($55)

I can now say that my AK's exceed the standards for what i believe great AK gbbrs should be like, both on a functional and aesthetic level. The only thing I wish that could have been better is the performance on full auto. Full auto is really not usable. This is the trade-off to having a full-travel bolt, which i do appreciate. Fortunately for me, I'm pretty much a semi only player, so this is not a big issue. Besides, the kick on this rifle is enough to render full-auto accuracy pretty much useless unless you are at close range. Rapid semi auto doesn't appear to be an issue.

So there you have it. It takes an additional $200 in upgrades to make a good rifle great. YMMV, but to me it was well worth it....maybe because I truly enjoy getting down and dirty with GBBRs. Perhaps it's just me, but I was never a firm believer in guns that run on batteries....

[Brian McIlmoyle]

I found you can fire just as fast Semi as this gun fires auto anyway..