M16A1 Thumper- Disassembly of upper tutorial on pg 2

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DISASSEMBLY OF UPPER,
TOOLS:
TORCH OR HEAT GUN
STRAP WRENCHES, (2 PREFERABLY)
UPPER VISE BLOCK
AR ARMORER’S TOOL
Allen Wrench (sorry dont know what size exactly)


1) Clamp upper into the vise. I had to purchase the special upper vise block for carry handle uppers for my specific build. Every AR owner should have one of these as well as the magazine vise block. You can try alternatively to use 2 2x4's placed on top and bottom of the flat top upper. But be careful as it may be possible to crack the upper.
2) Heat up the barrel nut/ handguard retaining ring to break down the red locktite on the threads. I heated them up for a good 5-7 minutes but some sources quote 10-15min. Then using strap wrenches ( I needed two placed 180 degrees from each other) twist the handguard off. It still required a lot of force to spin it off. Lefty loosey- no euro/commie right handed threads here. Alternatively, if you did not want to keep the handguard, you could twist it off by another means but will eventually really mangle it up.
3) With the handguard off, You will need to remove the gas block / gas tube assembly with an allen wrench on the underside of the gas block (on the 20” barrel- both gas blocks) to pull the barrel nut off.
4) Remove the izzy flash hider. a 19mm wrench works fine here as well. It gave me better leverage.
5) Use the armorer’s tool with the 3 prongs to remove the barrel nut.
6) The barrel pulls freely out of the upper at this point.

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