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Is there a trick to replacing the ratchet plate? It looks simple, but you know how looks are...

I assume you mean w/ a brp one. I havent replaced a whole one (yet) but i did replace a rear section. first i drilled out teh spotwelds on the section to be replaced then I drilled holes in the replacement plate in the original spotweld locations and plug welded it to the receiver.

*if* you get a "new" style brp plate you also have to mill the CH slot.

Do we have a post on this? I was not planning on removing my plate, but it's always good to know.

I replaced mine, and it is a pain but worth the effort. You can drill the old welds or use a dremel with one of the heavy duty cutoff wheels and grind down through the plate and remove the old one. SAVE THE PIECES YOU WILL NEED THEM. Took me about an hour with the dremil. The new plate is thicker than the old one (at least on my gun) so the charging handle binds and you will have to fix that. Also, the front of the plate needs to be angled so the clip on the charging handle can catch it in the forward position. Look at your old one before you remove it and you will see what I mean. The new one may be a hair too long so check the length of the old one first.

On the new one, there is a tab at the front that bends in at a 90 degree angle. We cut that tab off and reused the old tab we did not remove from the gun so you will need to set your spacing accordingly. Use the old plate to set the depth and width and orientation to mill out the cut on the back of the new plate.

Drill six or eight holes in the new plate per the old one to weld it to the receiver. We used a tig welder and so the tip of the tig could get in and make an arc with the receiver, the holes we drilled were larger than the original holes. That may be an operator preference. When you hit the switch, that part gets cherry red quickly and if you do not back and clamp the parts, you may get warpage - we did and had to remove and replace it a second time so use caution when welding this thin material. Also, better make sure it is oriented properrly before you weld. Start in the middle and work out first to the right and then to the left or vice versa so the heat won't warp the plate and make it appear to bubble in the middle.

Then you have these ugly welding spots that you have to remove after welding the plate to the receiver. Start sanding them individually and you will contour your plate with highs where you did not and and lows where you did. We had bent the little tab out at the back of the plate that keeps the charging handle from going too far back out before welding and the charging handle would not work because the new plate is thicker than the old one. We had to use an end mill and mill around the tab and over the welding excess and then I used a dremil with a sander attachment to take the whole thing down so the handle would clear and operate. I am not sure we should have not bent the tab up until afterwards, but we couldnt figure if we even could get under the cut to raise it after it was attached. I am no professional but my friend who helped me is and he has a shop with a lot of machinery. Not counting coffee breaks, telephone breaks, other people coming in the shop breaks bathroom breaks and trying how to figure it out breaks, we have about 10 - 12 hours in replacing that plate.

Have fun, we did!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

robert, where did you get your new ratchet plate?

I got the first one from Robert at RTG (great folks to work with) and the second one from someone selling one here.

I forgot to mention that I cut the front part and most of the bar off of an extra charging handle so we could slide it under the clamps when welding to insure proper spacing. You can pick up an extra charging handle from Gunbroken from time to time pretty cheap or Robert has German ones for around $40.00 or Dan over at Angola has the Yugo ones that are pretty much the same and a lot less mooola.