ZT 0566 love-hate relationship

M

mooch91

Joined
Mar 6, 2015
Messages
17
Hi all,

Purchased my ZT 0566 last year and loved the knife initially. Before I got in to knives, and tinkering, I really enjoyed carrying it as it was my first "real" knife.

Lately, though, I've been in a bit of a love-hate relationship with it.

It's always been a little difficult to open. Thought nothing of it until I bought my dad a Cryo 2 which opens like butter. I find my forefinger gets very sore from flipping the 0566 out.

So I deassisted it. Liked it this way for a while, except for the fact that I could only reliably deploy it every other time. I adjusted the pivot, oiled it up, replaced the little washer with a big washer, and just couldn't get it to deploy reliably. When I left the pivot loose enough to get good deployment, the blade rocked; I would very slightly tighten it to the point where the rock stopped, and then it was too difficult to deploy. I tried the centering techniques but could never get the blade to really move. I adjusted my technique to preload and push in rather than down on the flipper but still couldn't get it reliable unless I used a fair amount of wrist. I tried for a couple of weeks, but just had to give up. Maybe I don't really "know" what a good manual flipper works like, but this just didn't seem to be cutting it.

So I'm back to assisted. KAI sent me a few springs, but none made a difference overall in the difficulty to open. I have the "shorter" torsion spring, I believe.

Now that it's assisted, I'm still noticing the blade rock from time to time. I keep giving it a little tighten to get it to stop. Loctite doesn't seem to be helping (I have a hard time not gluing my blade to the washers and liner with the Loctite each time I do it).

And to top it off, I've always had a hard time getting the screws to properly catch the liner. Kershaw sent me a set of new screws, but perhaps my stand-offs are stripped, because a few are just not catching well. Or the screws are just a hair too short.

So for my question (on top of my rant): Anyone know which style torsion bar is the "easier" one to deploy? Anyone have any luck getting KAI to replace the liner, scale, and bar with the "easier" style?

This is the one I have:
566_Guts_05.jpg


I know I've seen a pic of the longer one, but I just can't find it at the moment.
 
I would say don't mess with the torsion bar, clean it up and add some extra white lithium grease. Should do the trick!
 
Honestly? I think every tinkerer at some point meets its nemesis. I know it can be a blow to the ego but maybe its time to send it in and see if kai can get it to your liking. Afterall who better to dial it in but the people that made it?
 
Ive had issues with my 0566 since the day I got it. Not as many as yours but enough to be really annoying. Only one of my screws (or is it the stand off?) on the G10 side just keeps free spinning all others are nice and tight. The blade has never been centered no matter how much I tighten or loosen the pivot. After reading many enthusiastic posts here about how good of a manual flipper the knife is un assisted I took a chance and took out the torsion bar. It flat sucked. No matter what I did the blade was even further off center, the detent is not strong enough to hold the blade in just holding it upside down the blade would pass the detent under its own weight. Carrying the knife that way in pocket the blade would come open just walking around. The opening and closing action was erratic and uneven. So I put the spring back in and its just a much better knife assisted since of course it was designed that way!

I forgot to lube the spring and spring area when I put it back together so now when I shake the knife when the blade is deployed I can hear the torsion bar rattle around. Very annoying. Im pretty sure getting the blade centered comes down to in what order you tighten the body screws down in as it is the same way for my 7 Blurs. The spring tension in my 0566 is fine and plenty strong. It just does not deploy nice and smoothly under constant and even spring tension from once it passes the detent to lock up like it did when new which I am sure comes down needing to take apart that side of the knife again and reposition the spring.

When it comes to the OP's 0566 it sounds like the tension bar is just out of position. On my 7 blurs I ended up using Vaseline all over the bar in order to keep it in place to lube it and hold it in place during re assembly which worked out very well. No rattling noise and the tension on the blade was back to factory. I did not know there were two lengths of tension bar for the 0566. Either short or long I am pretty sure the liner end of the bar needs to be in the lower corner of the machined out cavity it rests in. So gonna take mine apart and try again
 
I always thought the 0566 was painful operate over time too. That is a serious shortcoming to an otherwise nice knife. I don't think I want another assisted ZT. The ball bearing flippers are much sweeter.
 
Well that stinks you are having all those issues man! as far as the lock tite goes, take some name brand brake kleen from an automotive store and blast inside the female pivot screw and the male pivot screw to degrease first. Then put some red lock tite on the threads (only a little). You should have no more issues w/ it loosening up on you.

What kind of washers are in that knife? can't tell from the pic...
 
razor-edge-knives said:
Well that stinks you are having all those issues man! as far as the lock tite goes, take some name brand brake kleen from an automotive store and blast inside the female pivot screw and the male pivot screw to degrease first. Then put some red lock tite on the threads (only a little). You should have no more issues w/ it loosening up on you.

What kind of washers are in that knife? can't tell from the pic...
Click to expand...

Pic is not mine, but they are the bronze washers on the knife from the factory.
 
razor-edge-knives said:
Well that stinks you are having all those issues man! as far as the lock tite goes, take some name brand brake kleen from an automotive store and blast inside the female pivot screw and the male pivot screw to degrease first. Then put some red lock tite on the threads (only a little). You should have no more issues w/ it loosening up on you.

What kind of washers are in that knife? can't tell from the pic...
Click to expand...
- Red is the permanent version. Blue should be good enough for anything on a knife.
 
I hate to admit it but I'm in the same boat with mine. I really liked it for the first 6 months I had it, but it started to get really bad lock rock. I ended up having to bend the lock bar in a little to get reliable lock up, but it sticks more often than not now. I also have had problems getting it to deploy reliably deassisted. What serial number is yours? Mine is a relatively early one (19xx). Maybe some of the earlier production had issues?
 
I loved my 0566. I don't have it anymore, but was a sweet knife.

Once I deassisted mine, it was flawless in every way. Smooth as butter, easy to deploy fully, fast, centered, VERY VERY VERY little play side to side. Just a damn nice knife, especially for the money.
 
MI-FZ6 said:
I hate to admit it but I'm in the same boat with mine. I really liked it for the first 6 months I had it, but it started to get really bad lock rock. I ended up having to bend the lock bar in a little to get reliable lock up, but it sticks more often than not now. I also have had problems getting it to deploy reliably deassisted. What serial number is yours? Mine is a relatively early one (19xx). Maybe some of the earlier production had issues?
Click to expand...

Mine is 41XX.
 
I tried mine unassisted and it did not work out for me. I put the assist back in, but also took some polishing compound and my dremel tool and polished all of the contact points around the pivot action including the pivot, the washers, the part of the blade that meets the washers, the liners, the TI side, etc. I also found that "less is more" when it came to lubrication. Now, its still assisted but is very effortless to open. No blade play at all.
 
Krissig12 said:
I loved my 0566. I don't have it anymore, but was a sweet knife.

Once I deassisted mine, it was flawless in every way. Smooth as butter, easy to deploy fully, fast, centered, VERY VERY VERY little play side to side. Just a damn nice knife, especially for the money.
Click to expand...
Mine too - except that I still have it. Took a while to break in the washers but when they got happy, it became a favorite for sure.
 
Mine is the Blackwash version, it has been flawless, but I will admit I am not as much a fan of assisted knives as i used to be. I do not want anyone in the faraway places I travel to too look at them as auto knives.
 
Have you tried backing off the body screws a bit? Most of my KAI flippers will become inoperable if the body screws are too tight, especially the speedsafe ones.
 
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