Leak around vent liner

[W_TownMcKinley]

Hi all,

I was cleaning my flintlock after a range day. I used compressed air to dry the water out of the bore and noticed it forced some moisture out around the vent liner. What would you all recommend here? Am I able to seal the threads or do I need to replace the liner?

If a replacement is necessary, the breech plug removal and drilling/tapping of the vent hole are not something I'm comfortable doing. There also aren't any shops around here that work on flintlocks.

Thanks in advance!

 

[M. De Land]

Hi all,

I was cleaning my flintlock after a range day. I used compressed air to dry the water out of the bore and noticed it forced some moisture out around the vent liner. What would you all recommend here? Am I able to seal the threads or do I need to replace the liner?

If a replacement is necessary, the breech plug removal and drilling/tapping of the vent hole are not something I'm comfortable doing. There also aren't any shops around here that work on flintlocks.

Thanks in advance!

If it were mine I lathe turn a new liner with a tighter thread and replace the leaky one. I made my last one of A-2 tool steel and it is holding up quite well so far.

 

[SDSmlf]

I used compressed air to dry the water out of the bore and noticed it forced some moisture out around the vent liner. What would you all recommend here? Am I able to seal the threads or do I need to replace the liner?

Before going nuclear and cutting any steel, get a new liner and install it with a bit of thread sealant on the threads. Then see what you have.

 

[ZUG]

If it was mine I would first try putting teflon pipe tape on the vent liner and shoot it then clean it and see if it leaks. If it does then I would put Lock-Tite on it and shoot it. When the liner wears out I would then replace it.

 

[W_TownMcKinley]

Thanks for the replies! I pulled the liner and it looks like the problem is with the female threads on the barrel. The liner's in perfect shape but the female threads are a bit chewed up. I'd assume the previous owner replaced a vent liner and had trouble removing it.

 

[Johnny Too-Tall]

Thanks for the replies! I pulled the liner and it looks like the problem is with the female threads on the barrel. The liner's in perfect shape but the female threads are a bit chewed up. I'd assume the previous owner replaced a vent liner and had trouble removing it.

Re-Chase the threads and add Teflon tape and check it before you go serious and re-drill and tap.

 

[Grenadier1758]

The purpose of a vent liner is to provide a hole from the pan to the powder charge. The concern from the leakage around the threads of the vent liner is that fouling can get trapped in there and rust can start that will compromise the threads, so getting a good seal is important. The Teflon thread tape is likely to seal the threads. Otherwise, it will require drilling the compromised threads out to rethread the hole for a larger touch hole liner.

 

[Eric Krewson]

Could be the previous owner thought he had to pull the liner every time he cleaned the gun, some folks are like that. I had a friend that thought he had to pull the percussion drum every time he cleaned his gun, every time the threads got wallowed out he took the gun back to the builder to have it "fixed". The builder was his friend and kept putting in oversized threaded drums but couldn't get the guy to stop pulling the drum because that was what he had always done since he got into black powder at least 50 years earlier. The owner's health deteriorated and he passed away.

There are still a lot of people who pull the so called "clean-out" plug on a TC when they clean it because they always have. I have owned TCs since the early 70s and have not pulled this plug the first time.

 

[stank]

I believe you can buy oversize liners at Track of the wolf.

 

[M. De Land]

Hi all,

I was cleaning my flintlock after a range day. I used compressed air to dry the water out of the bore and noticed it forced some moisture out around the vent liner. What would you all recommend here? Am I able to seal the threads or do I need to replace the liner?

If a replacement is necessary, the breech plug removal and drilling/tapping of the vent hole are not something I'm comfortable doing. There also aren't any shops around here that work on flintlocks.

Thanks in advance!

Sounds like it may have been cross threaded at one time or another much like percussion nipples occasionally are and needs a tap clean out and over sized liner installed. The main thing is not getting a liner blow out here if the threads are buggered., and need redone. Leaks are some times and indication of cross threading and not just sloppy thread fit.

 

[bpd303]

I would use Red Lock-Tite on the current liner. It will seal the threads and keep the liner from blowing out. It would help to see a close up picture of the threads.

 

[SDSmlf]

I would use Red Lock-Tite on the current liner. It will seal the threads and keep the liner from blowing out. It would help to see a close up picture of the threads.

Lock-Tite does not add any strength to thread system if there is a poor fit between or damaged threads. It will minimize leakage and help keep the liner from turning and backing out, but it will not keep a liner from blowing out if the threads are bad. If that were the case, why bother having threads, just Lock-Tite a non-threaded liner in a drilled hole.

 

[bpd303]

That is why I said get us a picture of the threads.

 

[M. De Land]

Lock-Tite does not add any strength to thread system if there is a poor fit between or damaged threads. It will minimize leakage and help keep the liner from turning and backing out, but it will not keep a liner from blowing out if the threads are bad. If that were the case, why bother having threads, just Lock-Tite a non-threaded liner in a drilled hole.

Very true and important to know !

 

[W_TownMcKinley]

Here's a few pictures of the threads. I'm not sure it's cross-thread damage, but I'm no expert! I can try to follow the threads with the correct size tap but do you think there's enough meat left for it to work?

 

[waksupi]

That looks like hydrogen peroxide/pyrodex rot, made worse by vent removal.
If it isn't tight, replace it. Don't be trying locktite or thread tape. It tends to piss off the guy next to you when a vent blows out and in to his eye. As-is, there is no way to safely fire that gun in that conditiion.
If I were working on that, I would take a dremel and a diamond bit, to grind away a lot of that metal on the breech plug. And that's coming from a guy who despises the use of a dremel on guns.

 

[Rebel bull]

Lock-Tite does not add any strength to thread system if there is a poor fit between or damaged threads. It will minimize leakage and help keep the liner from turning and backing out, but it will not keep a liner from blowing out if the threads are bad. If that were the case, why bother having threads, just Lock-Tite a non-threaded liner in a drilled hole.

never use any locktite except blue if you expect to remove the screw in the future red requires heat to remove (torch) they also make a lock tite for damaged/loose screws but I wouldn't recommend it for use on a gun. we used it occasionally on a piece of equipment that we weren't allowed to shut down long enough for a proper fix........it usually bit us in the butt when we had to finally do a major overhaul

 

[SDSmlf]

Here's a few pictures of the threads. I'm not sure it's cross-thread damage, but I'm no expert! I can try to follow the threads with the correct size tap but do you think there's enough meat left for it to work?

To me it appears that at some point in the past those threads became corroded due to neglect, and then were ‘cleaned’ with either a homemade or commercial rust remover that dissolved the rust, leaving the ‘solid’ metal under that rust and what we see in the photographs. There is a good chance that similar neglect is present in the bore. Have you looked at the bore with a borescope?

Personally, to repair the liner threads, I would drill them out and tap threads for the next larger size vent liner. That said, folks use guns with touch liner and nipple hole threads in similar or worse condition everyday and don’t worry about it. Until there is an unexpected spontaneous disassembly when shooting the gun…..

 

[M. De Land]

Here's a few pictures of the threads. I'm not sure it's cross-thread damage, but I'm no expert! I can try to follow the threads with the correct size tap but do you think there's enough meat left for it to work?

It's been partially cross threaded at some point and needs drilled and re-tapped into fresh steel. I don't think heli-coiling a safe fix for these pressure fit applications.























jIt's

 

[billraby]

Do it right. Drill and tap a new hole. its not hard.