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Remington 552 Autoloader Troubleshooting...

PostPosted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 4:52 pm
by DoubleTap
Any issues, concerns or problems you may have with your Remington 552 Autoloader; this is a thread for troubleshooting.

Re: Remington 552 Autoloader Troubleshooting...

PostPosted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 10:17 am
by rl92821
I had a 552 that would not fire.
I replaced the firing pin and and now the first shell fires, but not the second. (chambers okay)
When I eject the second shell manually, the third shell will fire. (or any shell manually loaded)
So I guess it has to do with trigger cocking?

Any ideas to try would be appreciated.

Re: Remington 552 Autoloader Troubleshooting...

PostPosted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 8:06 pm
by SHOOTER13
Welcome to the Remington Owners Forum RL92821 !!

Not sure, but someone will be along shortly with an answer...stand by !

Re: Remington 552 Autoloader Troubleshooting...

PostPosted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 9:21 am
by KGB
It sounds as if something is preventing the bolt from traveling far enough to the rear after firing a shot. You are compensating for that by manually chambering a round. If you could take the trigger group out and take a few pics of it and the bolt and the inside of the receiver then I might be able to help a little further. I actually took a 552 apart yesterday and have the parts soaking in cleaner now. I am very familiar with these great guns.

Re: Remington 552 Autoloader Troubleshooting...

PostPosted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 7:27 pm
by rl92821
Thanks KGB

I actually took the trigger assmbly back apart yesterday and looked at the buffer and buffer plate. When I took the trigger assembly out to replace the firing pin, these two fell out. I did not have a diagram at the time so I guessed, and put the buffer in first then the buffer plate with the 90 deg. tab pointing toward the rear, but covering the front edge of the buffer. After downloading a diagram it appears the buffer plate should be installed first with the tab pointing to the rear, but at the top of the gun. After reassemlbing this way yesterday, it appears to be okay. Now just have to wait for the next chance to use it.

Thanks again for your help.

Re: Remington 552 Autoloader Troubleshooting...

PostPosted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 9:02 pm
by KGB
That sounds like you might have it fixed alright. You are correct about the positioning of those parts now so you should be good to go. Let us know how it works when you get a chance to shoot it.

Re: Remington 552 Autoloader Troubleshooting...

PostPosted: Tue May 01, 2012 10:40 pm
by ericg86
i recently inherited my 552 and the take down screw is well screwed lol i was wondering if anyone knew the thread pitch off hand i cant find it anywhere online the screw from my target master seems to be right but i think the threads on the barrel lug are messed up too so i need to get a tap and or thread chaser but need the pitch

Re: Remington 552 Autoloader Troubleshooting...

PostPosted: Sat May 12, 2012 6:26 pm
by 1stlttightwad
ericg86 wrote:i recently inherited my 552 and the take down screw is well screwed lol i was wondering if anyone knew the thread pitch off hand i cant find it anywhere online the screw from my target master seems to be right but i think the threads on the barrel lug are messed up too so i need to get a tap and or thread chaser but need the pitch

The 552 is still in production..Order the screw from Remington. Then either order a thread checker gauge/plate from brownells or carry it to a gunsmith that has one..Once you have determined the pitch and diameter you can then match it to the correct tap and die. Hope this helps. Dave :D

Remington 552 problems

PostPosted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 4:33 pm
by olis
I have a 552 my dad gave me back around 1979-80. The gun was new and from day one had trouble loading shorts. When new, it would get a nasty jam on just about every other shot. It was fairly reliable with LR ammo though. I recently dusted it off for my son to use. I did a complete takedown and discovered that the hammer had a large tag of metal on the beveled edge -- an obvious manufacturing defect. I filed it off and the gun hasn't had a single jam since. The other day I decided to try some shorts because LR ammo is sold out everywhere in my town. I didn't get any jams but the gun only self-loaded one in about every 5 to 10 rounds. It worked fine as long as I loaded each round manually. The bolt operates smoothly and I've ruled out burrs or anything like that. I'm fine with sticking to LR ammo but I'm wondering if anyone here has theories about what the problem might be. Could it be an overly stiff action spring? Or are these rifles just not reliable with short ammo?

Problem # 2: The magazine follower occasionally gets wedged into the slot below the breech after the last shot. Sometimes the bolt will actually hit it, wedging it even tighter. When this happens, the only way to remove the magazine is to pry the follower out of the slot. I suspect this may have something to do with filing away damage from jams back when the gun was new, causing the slot to widen. If that is the case, is a complete barrel replacement the only remedy?

In retrospect, we should have sent it in for warranty repair back when it was new.

Remington 552 Autoloader Magazine Tube Issue

PostPosted: Sat Sep 21, 2013 10:34 am
by michaelcamden
Hi,
I have a Remington Speedmaster 552 that I inherited from my father in law. My wife believes that it's from the mid-70's. I have taken it to a local gunsmith to have it services and he did some work on it including replacing several of the springs, cleaning it out, and getting rid of any burrs. It shoots well, but I've found that as it's shot, the magazine tube will end up inching forward out of the magazine rings and after about 10-15 rounds (if I haven't been watching it), it will fly off entirely. I've tried tightening the magazine screw on the magazine ring, but it's as tight as it will get. I can't think of what else I need to do to keep the magazine tube secured. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!

Re: Remington 552 Autoloader Troubleshooting...

PostPosted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 9:47 pm
by jon p
just bought a real clean-- about 85% condition 1967 552 BDL. i love this beautiful rifle but there is one thing wrong that is driving me CRAZY. using iron sights, which are the fully adjustable BDL sights, the gun will shoot quarter size 12 shot groups at 25 yards with perfect windage BUT it groups about 3+ inches high no matter where i set the step elevator. i fired about 200 rounds trying to zero the sights. NO LUCK! even took the step elevator out of the sight. no change. i have never had a rifle do this. any ideas what may be wrong, this is a recent buy, and the first time i have fired it. maybe something/somewhere is too tight/loose??? i am thinking about adding a williams dovetail mount peep sight which should solve the problem but i think i will have to remove the factory rear sight. will the tall BDL ramp front sight be high enough for the peep? since the front sight screws on i see no way to add a different sight if needed with the peep rear. maybe a red dot or 4X30 scope??i just hate to treat the symptom and not the real cause of the malfunction !! i am so frustrated with this rifle not shooting WHERE I AIM ! i do not want to have to hold 3" low to hit the bulls eye. someone PLEASE HELP!! :idea: :idea: :idea:

Re: Remington 552 Autoloader Troubleshooting...

PostPosted: Thu Jun 12, 2014 3:33 pm
by HOGWILD56
So how do you lock the bolt back for cleaning?????????

Re: Remington 552 Autoloader Troubleshooting...

PostPosted: Mon Nov 16, 2015 6:05 pm
by Lngyrd
Thanks KGB

I actually took the trigger assmbly back apart yesterday and looked at the buffer and buffer plate. When I took the trigger assembly out to replace the firing pin, these two fell out. I did not have a diagram at the time so I guessed, and put the buffer in first then the buffer plate with the 90 deg. tab pointing toward the rear, but covering the front edge of the buffer. After downloading a diagram it appears the buffer plate should be installed first with the tab pointing to the rear, but at the top of the gun. After reassemlbing this way yesterday, it appears to be okay. Now just have to wait for the next chance to use it.

Thanks again for your help.

From me as well. This is exactly what I needed to know

Re: Remington 552 Autoloader Troubleshooting...

PostPosted: Wed Nov 07, 2018 8:24 pm
by Rex in OTZ
I picked up a early 70's 552.
At first Id tried cleaning it.
Then after 7 times opening it up and cleaning.
Id discovered the nose was busted off the disconnector arm
Id used dental picks on all the nooks and crannies, swiss filed the ejector slot, every part that caused drag.
I even went so far as to stone the machine marks on the hammer nose.
It fires the first round but closes on a empty chamber, on cycling the next round jams.
The last outing it did fire 4 rounds normally.
Since then Id orderd 2 new springs.
I just replaced the easy spring (the bolt return spring)
I noticed the old spring was 2 inches longer than the new spring (possibly the last owner had streched it thinking it was too weak?)
I still have to replace the magazine spring which I think needs replacing. . . . . .
Well I just replaced the internal spring
On the bench the new magazine spring was 13"-14" longer than the old spring.

So the action spring was 2 inches longer than the new spring ment too much resistance on firing.
The old mag spring that was 13-14" shorter than the new spring didnt supply sufficent feeding force to the cartridges during the firing cycle.
Thatd account for the empty chamber after firing the first round.

I had been cycling ammo through that rifle one time, thennthrough amazon I orderd 12 alumnum dummy rounds
Cycling the action by hand those rounds fed flawlessly.
Only during firing did it turn into a jam-a-matic.
Now all I have to do is actually take it out and run some live rounds through it to see how it behaves.

Re: Remington 552 Autoloader Troubleshooting...

PostPosted: Wed Nov 07, 2018 10:24 pm
by Rex in OTZ
Now after installing both new springs into this 552.
I wonder what the acceptable spring lengths would be?
That way when you pull a spring and measure it youd have some sort a idea what your working with.

Re: Remington 552 Autoloader Troubleshooting...

PostPosted: Mon Mar 18, 2019 2:46 am
by Rex in OTZ
I replaced both the magazine and bolt return springs, Ive tested it using CCI Blazers.
The first round fired the second round didnt (very light fireing pin hit) to re-cock, I cycled the bolt which left the round in the chamber, then picked up another round for a double feed jam.
I shook out the double and closed the bolt on the round in the chamber, it did fire, the rest of the rounds in the magazine were one misfire after another with double feed jams.
So I picked up the empties and the rounds that didnt fire and put them in my pocket for later inspection.
Back at the house I pulled it down and checked the bolt and trigger group.
The feeble dents on the cartridges looked wierd so on a hunch I pulled out the firing pin out of the bolt and then noticed it had a wierd bannana shaped bend to it, the firing pin tip was hitting away from the cartridge rim and its priming compound, I did a google search of Remington 552 fireing pins and that wierd bend was not eveident on any of the images.
So I straightened it on a flat piece of metal using a small ball pien hammer.
Since I live in the North Western Arctic Coast of Alaska my access to cherry 552 parts is Zilch.
So the next time the weather clears I'll try it again.

Re: Remington 552 Autoloader Troubleshooting...

PostPosted: Mon Mar 18, 2019 10:32 am
by Scorpion8
Rex in OTZ wrote:Since I live in the North Western Arctic Coast of Alaska my access to cherry 552 parts is Zilch.
So the next time the weather cmears I'll try it again.


This has been quite the journey. I live down in SouthEast panhandle so if you need anything obtained and transshipped parts-wise just let me know. My 552 has been functioning flawless but I'll bet yours get a lot harder workout.

Re: Remington 552 Autoloader Troubleshooting...

PostPosted: Sat Jun 15, 2019 1:46 am
by Rex in OTZ
This journey started in 2016 and is still going.
https://www.firearmstalk.com/threads/55 ... ht.119783/


Just the last bit in my journey.
From last weekend
Well that darn rifle has been randomly hitting the firing pin hard on the rim and setting off a small percentage of rounds and most the time it lightly hits the rim "It kinda just Dings them a tad" and making a light firing pin indent, degrading the rounds priming compound.
I had another 552 Speedmaster trigger assy that had a servicable cartridge lifter still on it.
A couple nights back I removed the cracked lifter and cleaned up the used one by stoneing some of the heavy rust patches off.
I drifted out the hammer pin rivet and tried to shim it with some plastic cut from a plastic pop bottle, but was way too thick and I had binding issues, then I cut the side out of a pop can and used the hammer rivet washer as a die and the hammer pin as a punch to cut the proper ID size holes in the thin aluminum, used scissor to get that roundish shape.
I managed to get three shims tucked in next to the hammer and managed to wriggle the hammer rivet pin back in while holding the disconnector in the proper position and hold in the hammer plunger, rivet washer all back in place for staking on an anvil.
The use of a extra pair of hands made the project turn out better.
You can do all that by yourself, but you get a better rivet set with extra hands.

Now with popcan shimms in place it has taken about 85-90% of the side to side wobble out of the hammer.
With the bolt all deburred, new ejector, new firing pin, new hammer spring and all the shims removing that wobble from the 552's long hammer drop, and hammer relief filed back a tad to accentuate the hammers striking face.
Who knows, this 552 Speedmaster just might behave?

Re: Remington 552 Autoloader Troubleshooting...

PostPosted: Sat Jun 15, 2019 2:16 am
by Rex in OTZ
There were a few times I did get angry at this .22.
But its just a mechanical device.
So I resisted the urge to pitch it in the ocean.
Instead its become a puzzle to pass the time.
It has become so much so that Im bound and determined to figure out Why it wont fire a round.
It just lightly dings the cartridge.
At a low point I actually contacted Remington Tec about the 1971 era .22.
They just wanted me to ship it off to a service center in Anchorage.
That kinda defeats the purpose of the whole experence at this point.
All the hours thinking about it, the days with the parts on my kitchen table, the weather conditions I went through, the miles traveled by foot, bicycle, atv, snowmobile just to get out of town far enough to test fire it.
So No Im not sending this .22 to a Remington Service center just so they can replace parts till it works.
Im attemping to find out the reason Why it does, What it does.
I figured someone on the Remington Forums would have had a good idea on why a 552 or even a 572 would have short bouts of intermittant normal hammer strikes on cartridge case rims and the majority the time it strikes the case just enought to knock loose the cartridge primer compound instead of firing the cartridge.
I have many photos of Many Many Many Duds created by this rifle.

So far its had every rough edge, burr and scratch polished, stoned and filed that most folks would attribute to jams.
Ive replace the bolt return spring with a brand new one, replaced the magazine spring, and extractor spring, and the Hammer spring with New, Ive replaced the broken Disconnector, Firing Pin, Exreactor claw, even the Ejector even though it was not worn, and the very last item Id changed was the cartridge lifter as it was cracked, then ironed the bur in the chamber.

Sooner or later I will figure out what is the cause of this alternating regular and light firing pin strikes.

Re: Remington 552 Autoloader Troubleshooting...

PostPosted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 6:42 pm
by Rex in OTZ
Im thinking from all I had gone through, All the time spent studing the workings, the hours spent on the internet looking at forums and the different posts, all the parts and polishing this rifle has received.
And yet it still will not consistantly discharge when called upon to do so.
The trigger group with its new hammer, hammer spring, lifter and disconnector. With added hammer side shim's
The only thing I had not verified was a bad chamber rim that wont support a live cartridge solidly to ensure a repeatable discharge.

Re: Remington 552 Autoloader Troubleshooting...

PostPosted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 10:50 pm
by mauser9
Quite a thread to follow indeed. You have the patience of a saint!! It it were me Remington would have gotten that gun back for a complete overall in a hurry. No patience for crap like this.

Re: Remington 552 Autoloader Troubleshooting...

PostPosted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 10:50 pm
by mauser9
Quite a thread to follow indeed. You have the patience of a saint!! It it were me Remington would have gotten that gun back for a complete overall in a hurry. No patience for crap like this.

Re: Remington 552 Autoloader Troubleshooting...

PostPosted: Wed Sep 11, 2019 3:29 am
by Rex in OTZ
Well when I get stuck in a rut, the 552 sits in the corner till I get a fresh dose of gumption to fix it.
Ive pretty much covered the trigger group with replaced parts, same with the bolt.
Im thinking when I first got it had that wierdly bent firing pin that boogered the chamber rim seat.
As I didnt have a chamber burnishing iron I used a very long tapered punch to work out the chamber ding.
That chamber must just be a little bit excessive on head space?
With the bolt closed on a live round and measured firing pin protrusion (0.045") thats in the ballpark I cant get the firing pin to consistantly hit every time to set it off.
So Im guessing if I can reduce the headspace by a thousandth or two might be what I need to bring the firing pin forward that little extra bit needed to set off the .22 priming compound of every round fed into the chamber.
My last outing I had a brand new box of winchester .22 Shorts, it would only fire 3-4 rounds out of 15.
The cartridges that didnt fire in the 552, did fire in another .22 when the firing pin indent was indexed at the 6 o-clock position.
So im thinking of removing some material from the back end of the barrel extension which should being the bolt face forward (reduce headspace)
I cant get crazy by excessivly removing barrel extension material, or risk slamb fires.
If my firing pin protrusion is 0.045" and its barely denting the cartridges after all the trigger/hammer group work then the only thing it could be to consistantly cause light stikes is excessive head space.
If I was in a region where I could score a chamber reamer to even up the chamber rim, Id still have to re-set the head space.
And I believe thats done by removing some the barrel extension to bring the bolt assy forward.

Re: Remington 552 Autoloader Troubleshooting...

PostPosted: Fri Nov 22, 2019 1:27 pm
by Rex in OTZ
Well the thing about shallow strikes on cartridges?
Check that you have a good firing pin protrusion (.043" to 0.045").
Check your hammer group for gummy hammer strut plunger.
Im betting My light strike problem is from a boogered up chamber from dry firing the firing pin into the chamber edge.
Ironing the chamber rim boogerz 3-4 times resulted in excessive headspace on this 1971 era 552.

The shallow denting of the case is just at the tipping point of my intermittant random ignition issue.
The round count of this particular rifle the math on fired rounds was firing 19% of total fired.
So I used a air abrasive cutter tool to buff a shiny spot on the butt end the barrel extension.
And tested the rifle.
That tiny bit of material buffed off the barrel extension to brought forward the firing pin a consistant ignition of cartridges tried after the barrel extension adjustment.

So light cartridge strikes even after cleaning, polishing and replacement of parts = excessive head space.

Re: Remington 552 Autoloader Troubleshooting...

PostPosted: Fri Nov 22, 2019 5:56 pm
by mauser9
Hope to hell this is the final fix and the problem is remedied. Sounds like a previous owner did some dry snapping as you suggest and screwed it up. Sure did a lot of work to get it back in service. They are a great looking gun and one I wish I owned new. Heck wish they came in 22 magnum!!