Airsoft Canada - View Single Post - First AEG Repair / Upgrade Completed Successfully

Crunchmeister · January 13th, 2008, 02:40

I've successfully completed my first repair and upgrade. Some of you probably read my thread a while back asking for help identifying a mystery part that had fallen out of my mechbox (http://www.airsoftcanada.com/showthread.php?t=49527). The thread then expanded asking a few more questions about a few problems that I had. I made a last post in that thread the other day saying that I had managed to reassemble everything, but was having another issue.

For a brief history on the gun for those who haven't (or don't want to) read the other thread. I blew out the spur gear on my TM M4A1 in early December. I figured if I have the gun apart to repair it, I might as well also do some internal modifications. I ordered a Modify torque-up modular gear set and a Prometheus MS110SP spring. Earlier attempts to install the parts had failed (read the other thread for details if interested). So knowing that I would soon be getting a C8 metal body for the gun, I shelved the project until a couple of days ago when I went through the whole process again.

At first, I though I was successful. I mounted the mechbox into the lower receiver, installed all the pins, grip, and motor, and managed to successfully fire the gun. Upon reassembly of the rest of the gun, the gun would no longer fire. I was rather disappointed, having been proud of myself for having baslically built a "new gun" from the ground up with a new body, etc and had it working up till that point. But it was late and I was tired so I put it aside until I had more time to properly troubleshoot it.

Tonight, I finally had time to try again. From my observations, it didn't seem like the motor was being powered at all, so I figured the problem might be electrical. After checking the intergrity of the fuse, I opened the grip and removed the motor, then reconnected the wires to the motor and pulled the trigger. There was no power to the motor, so either the motor had died, or it was an internal electrical problem. Touching the battery leads directly to the motor terminals made it run, so I narrowed it down to an electrical problem.

So once again disassembled the entire gun and mechbox. I discovered that one wires on the trigger mechanism had broken loose. I quickly soldered it, and reassembled the mechbox. Upon mounting it into the lower receiver with the grip and motor, it was once again firing. I assembled the rest of the gun successfully, and it's now completely functional. I now have my metal bodied TM M4-based C8A2 - at least it's first steps. I still need some cosmetic mods to complete the look, but this is definitely a good start.

The performance has increased pretty significantly. Since it was stock , I'm assuming it fired at roughly 280 fps like other stock TM guns. It might have been a bit faster because I run a 9.6V battery instead of an 8.4, but I can't imagine it was too much higher than that. Now it's ROF is lower due to the torque-up gears. It's still fast, but now it's slower than my CA M15 rifle, whereas before the upgrade its ROF was faster than the M15's. But the power increase is pretty dramatic. For its initial test fire, I loaded up my 2 of my 130 rnd midcaps and fired at my almost new Crosman 'gel' target (only had about 200 rounds fired at it from my pistols) at about 20 feet. I not only hit the target accurately, I went right through it! So I had to find out how powerful it had become.

Damage done to the target after firing one 130 magazine at it

I performed the Coke can test at 1-2 inches as per the "Poor Man's Chrono" guide on Redwolf's site, and I managed to punch right through both sides of the can. I was unable to penetrate the bottom or edges of another coke can. According to their chart, that's 350 to 370fps. I'm very pleased with the results, as this was the approximate velocity I was going for.

Yeah, I'm quite proud of myself on my first successful teardown and upgrade of my gun and to have such fantastic results in the end. It took several attempts to get it right, but it's working now, and it's been a fantastic learning experience for me. This is probably laughable to a lot of you guys who've done this 20 739 times, but to have done it all by myself (with a bit of advice from some of you guys along the way) feels like quite an acheivement for me. And now I feel quite confident that I can repeat this process on any Armalite and no longer feel intimidated by it. I'm definitely not overconfident to the point of thinking that I'll never run into any issues or problems with future work, but now that I've disassembled and reassembled my C8 so many times, I know the process well enough that I'm no longer afraid of breaking my gun. I know all the parts from the mechbox to the externals and how they go together. And I now know most of them by name too, so that's also a good start.

I feel so confident, in fact, that my M15 is next to get upgraded. Within the next couple of days (after some research and price-shopping), I'll be ordering a new spring (another Prometheus MS110SP that should get me in the 380-390 FPS range), piston and piston head (these last 2 in order to replace the chronically problematic CA parts). And after that, both guns will be receiving tightbore barrels to increase their (already good) accuracy. The C8 will also be receiving a heavy outer barrel for cosmetic purposes.

And a note on the Modify modular gearset. I don't know how much time people normally spend shimming gears when doing a fresh install, but these things are a great time saver. The gears are all pre-shimmed and attached together in this pre-assembled unit. All you do is pop in the new steel bushings and install the gear assembly. Getting the anti-reversal latch and tappet plate in is a bit trickier because of the "outer shims" on which the gears are mounted, but it's quite easy after you've done it a couple of times. Their action is very smooth, so I'm assuming that means they are indeed correctly shimmed. I'm a noob and I don't really know what to look for in a good shim job, but if it's completely fluid motion without any signs of grinding or friction, then these gears do exactly that. I wouldn't hesitate to install a set in my M15 should I encounter grear problems with it.

Modify Modular gear set

So just for pimpage, here's a couple of pics of the final product - at least in its current stage of the mod process.

January 13th, 2008, 02:40	#1
Crunchmeister Trader rating Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: In your bedroom going though your underwear drawer	First AEG Repair / Upgrade Completed Successfully I've successfully completed my first repair and upgrade. Some of you probably read my thread a while back asking for help identifying a mystery part that had fallen out of my mechbox (http://www.airsoftcanada.com/showthread.php?t=49527). The thread then expanded asking a few more questions about a few problems that I had. I made a last post in that thread the other day saying that I had managed to reassemble everything, but was having another issue. For a brief history on the gun for those who haven't (or don't want to) read the other thread. I blew out the spur gear on my TM M4A1 in early December. I figured if I have the gun apart to repair it, I might as well also do some internal modifications. I ordered a Modify torque-up modular gear set and a Prometheus MS110SP spring. Earlier attempts to install the parts had failed (read the other thread for details if interested). So knowing that I would soon be getting a C8 metal body for the gun, I shelved the project until a couple of days ago when I went through the whole process again. At first, I though I was successful. I mounted the mechbox into the lower receiver, installed all the pins, grip, and motor, and managed to successfully fire the gun. Upon reassembly of the rest of the gun, the gun would no longer fire. I was rather disappointed, having been proud of myself for having baslically built a "new gun" from the ground up with a new body, etc and had it working up till that point. But it was late and I was tired so I put it aside until I had more time to properly troubleshoot it. Tonight, I finally had time to try again. From my observations, it didn't seem like the motor was being powered at all, so I figured the problem might be electrical. After checking the intergrity of the fuse, I opened the grip and removed the motor, then reconnected the wires to the motor and pulled the trigger. There was no power to the motor, so either the motor had died, or it was an internal electrical problem. Touching the battery leads directly to the motor terminals made it run, so I narrowed it down to an electrical problem. So once again disassembled the entire gun and mechbox. I discovered that one wires on the trigger mechanism had broken loose. I quickly soldered it, and reassembled the mechbox. Upon mounting it into the lower receiver with the grip and motor, it was once again firing. I assembled the rest of the gun successfully, and it's now completely functional. I now have my metal bodied TM M4-based C8A2 - at least it's first steps. I still need some cosmetic mods to complete the look, but this is definitely a good start. The performance has increased pretty significantly. Since it was stock , I'm assuming it fired at roughly 280 fps like other stock TM guns. It might have been a bit faster because I run a 9.6V battery instead of an 8.4, but I can't imagine it was too much higher than that. Now it's ROF is lower due to the torque-up gears. It's still fast, but now it's slower than my CA M15 rifle, whereas before the upgrade its ROF was faster than the M15's. But the power increase is pretty dramatic. For its initial test fire, I loaded up my 2 of my 130 rnd midcaps and fired at my almost new Crosman 'gel' target (only had about 200 rounds fired at it from my pistols) at about 20 feet. I not only hit the target accurately, I went right through it! So I had to find out how powerful it had become. Damage done to the target after firing one 130 magazine at it I performed the Coke can test at 1-2 inches as per the "Poor Man's Chrono" guide on Redwolf's site, and I managed to punch right through both sides of the can. I was unable to penetrate the bottom or edges of another coke can. According to their chart, that's 350 to 370fps. I'm very pleased with the results, as this was the approximate velocity I was going for. Yeah, I'm quite proud of myself on my first successful teardown and upgrade of my gun and to have such fantastic results in the end. It took several attempts to get it right, but it's working now, and it's been a fantastic learning experience for me. This is probably laughable to a lot of you guys who've done this 20 739 times, but to have done it all by myself (with a bit of advice from some of you guys along the way) feels like quite an acheivement for me. And now I feel quite confident that I can repeat this process on any Armalite and no longer feel intimidated by it. I'm definitely not overconfident to the point of thinking that I'll never run into any issues or problems with future work, but now that I've disassembled and reassembled my C8 so many times, I know the process well enough that I'm no longer afraid of breaking my gun. I know all the parts from the mechbox to the externals and how they go together. And I now know most of them by name too, so that's also a good start. I feel so confident, in fact, that my M15 is next to get upgraded. Within the next couple of days (after some research and price-shopping), I'll be ordering a new spring (another Prometheus MS110SP that should get me in the 380-390 FPS range), piston and piston head (these last 2 in order to replace the chronically problematic CA parts). And after that, both guns will be receiving tightbore barrels to increase their (already good) accuracy. The C8 will also be receiving a heavy outer barrel for cosmetic purposes. And a note on the Modify modular gearset. I don't know how much time people normally spend shimming gears when doing a fresh install, but these things are a great time saver. The gears are all pre-shimmed and attached together in this pre-assembled unit. All you do is pop in the new steel bushings and install the gear assembly. Getting the anti-reversal latch and tappet plate in is a bit trickier because of the "outer shims" on which the gears are mounted, but it's quite easy after you've done it a couple of times. Their action is very smooth, so I'm assuming that means they are indeed correctly shimmed. I'm a noob and I don't really know what to look for in a good shim job, but if it's completely fluid motion without any signs of grinding or friction, then these gears do exactly that. I wouldn't hesitate to install a set in my M15 should I encounter grear problems with it. Modify Modular gear set So just for pimpage, here's a couple of pics of the final product - at least in its current stage of the mod process. __________________ Last edited by Crunchmeister; January 13th, 2008 at 02:43..