'Stuck' Op-Rod?....

[ZBeast]

Well the kitchen/deck op-rod parking went very well. After oiling and greasing and hand polishing, it looks like new. Now! I put it together, did the tilt test ( it passed) and now I can't remove it from the tab guide. This is a first for me. Never had any problems with over a dozen builds and this has me flustered. I do not want to pry it out and risk messing up the tab (and my perfect parkerizing job). Any hints, suggestions or other? Do I have to use the 'go to' Garand fix, aka. whack with hammer? . Thanks in advance folks, ZB.

[timshufflin]

Well the kitchen/deck op-rod parking went very well. After oiling and greasing and hand polishing, it looks like new. Now! I put it together, did the tilt test ( it passed) and now I can't remove it from the tab guide. This is a first for me. Never had any problems with over a dozen builds and this has me flustered. I do not want to pry it out and risk messing up the tab (and my perfect parkerizing job). Any hints, suggestions or other? Do I have to use the 'go to' Garand fix, aka. whack with hammer? . Thanks in advance folks, ZB.

No worries, hand pressure at the tab release cut will get the rod out. Try removing the gas cylinder first, if you haven't already done so, it will come.

[ZBeast]

All is good! The things that happen when one is building rifles instead of sleeping are often fixed with walking away and going to bed. When I put everything together the oprod went in last and dropped into place. It was not coming apart the same way. This morning I removed the gas cylinder, front handguard and the oprod fell off. I can now grease the whole thing proper and continue on my way.