Couple things here. First, thank you all for the responses.

Second, as expressed in one of my earlier posts, as far as the bolt goes. I bought the tool, rebuilt the bolt TWICE, and then the bolt tool busted. Some of you caught that, some of you didn't obviously. As far as I know, the bolt should be gtg. I'm pretty sure I always got my parts from BilliRicca for the carbine. I might've gotten the op slide spring from Fulton Armory though. I forget.

Thirdly, Sarge1998, very very good points. I forgot about the staking on the piston nut. It doesn't LOOK cross threaded, but it might not mean anything. I may have come to that conclusion a while ago not to futz with it because of those possibilities. Because I have the tool, and I'm not overly weak, and I could never get the thing to even budge. Although I don't think I put it in a vice because I was worried about hurting the barrel or receiver. If they made a tool like the AR has where it has a block that encases it, and holds it in place for your vice, that would be nice.

Fourthly. I was down there last night looking at it. I should've took pictures but I can if anyone thinks this has anything to do with it. I swear, any mag I put in there I can rock it forward and aft at LEAST 1/4". And same with left and right. And when I do, if I have the bolt pulled back, when I go left and right with it, I can see about a 1/16" gap between the receiver and the mag, or more. Is this normal? I DO have an M2 mag catch on there, and the mag seats directly against it. But the mag catch has a lot of play in it. That's where most of the movement is from. The mag catch seats directly to the mag, but allows for a LOT of movement. And then there is some movement in the trigger group. Not nearly as much as what the mag catch allows though. Someone suggested a long time ago to me that this is all normal. Is it?