A&K m249 Gearbox Upgrades
 

So, a Friend of mine wants to upgrade his stock m249 he just bought 2nd hand. its been quite used so he wants to replace it with upgrade parts but he dont know what ver gearbox it is, so it would be great if you guys could let me know what Ver. Gearbox it runs and what parts he could use to upgrade it!

Its a A&K M249 para

The mechbox is proprietary but alot of the parts are compatible.

The worst part in the mix are the gears. They are horribly shimmed out of the factory. After 200 rounds, the sector gear stripped two teeth.

Grab a decent set of steel gears. Shameless plug but Lonex gears are great for this. They're quiet, steel-treated hardened gears which would work reliably for years.

When you reshim everything pay very careful attention to the bevel-pinion interaction. Any lateral stress and those bearing usually blow. They are proprietary.

The cylinder can use some Teflon tape for a better seal. Nozzle appears to be slightly longer than M4 nozzle. Beware because the cylinder tube seems to be larger in diameter than other products on the market. I didn't take a caliper to it but the inner diameter of the nozzle may be larger than TM parts.

Of course, AoE needs to be fixed too with a spacer or a sorbopad.

Get rid of motor. It's a regular ferrous motor with a really poorly made pinion gear. It's a D type pinion with no screw...and the angle of the teeth does not mesh with the gearset well.

Electricals wise the system uses a micro switch. Don't know first-hand regarding longevity but sourcing a replacement may be an issue in the future.

Overall, with a good 100 dollars spent on gears, motor, and small tidbits, it can be a very good performer.

thanks stealth!!! i'll tell him that!!

I dont know if its a problem with the A&K, but my CA saw is having problems with Modify gears. I had a set of modify hight speed gears that worked great forever, they wore out, shaft let go from the gears. anyway, I ordered a new set, and modify has since changed their manufacturing process, their current encarnation of gears arent compatible with CA saw gearboxes, they bind. So be sure to test to see if they will cycle before you put in the motor and piston.

http://www.arniesairsoft.co.uk/revie...49-para/cat/16

This is the best detailed breakdown of the A&K that I've seen.

What I would suggest is to ignore the internals at the start.

Get a Classic Army Hopup chamber and Nutsack box mag to replace the stock parts. Ditch the stock micro switch in the trigger and then worry about the rest.