Bushing upgrade survey for TM M14

[The Saint]

Hey folks, I'm trying to decide on a set of bearingless bushings to cohabitate with my new MS100 in my SOCOM14. So I'm doing a small survey on the amount of reshimming required versus particular brand of bushings, since my understanding is that bushings can vary from brand-to-brand enough to sometimes warrant new shimming. The idea is to isolate a brand of bushings with the least (preferrably no) reshimming required in the stock Marui M14 gearbox.

The format for the survey is as follows:

Brand: (Name)
Reshimming: (No/Yes: how much variance from stock shimming)
Bushings secured to mechbox: (No/Yes: Friction/Glue/Other)
Comments: (Whatever you feel relevent from your upgrade)

Obviously, only bushings that properly fit in stock condition (ex. no Dremmeling anything) need apply. Thanks for you participation. :nod:

[ILLusion]

This question strikes me as odd, simply because even if you have two bone stock Marui gearboxes side-by-side, the shimming setups between the two gearboxes will still be different.

There is no general setup.

If it helps answer your question(s), I've installed Prometheus bushings, Prometheus bearings, Systema bushings and Guarder bushings in to M14s. All of them fit properly, not too loose, not too tight, no mods required. All required re-shimming, although from what I recall, the Guarder ones required the least amount of reshimming.

If it's worth anything: I don't like the Guarder bushings, because they are prone to oxidation (read: rust) if they're not lubricated well.

[The Saint]

Originally Posted by ILLusion

This question strikes me as odd, simply because even if you have two bone stock Marui gearboxes side-by-side, the shimming setups between the two gearboxes will still be different.

I didn't know that. I assumed that TM stock parts and stock gearboxes are all of the same dimensions, so they are all shimmed the same. I didn't realize that each individual AEG is shimmed separately. 8O

[ILLusion]

Originally Posted by The Saint

I didn't know that. I assumed that TM stock parts and stock gearboxes are all of the same dimensions, so they are all shimmed the same. I didn't realize that each individual AEG is shimmed separately. 8O

Generally, they are shimmed individually. Marui tends to use very very loose tolerances and use only two general shim sizes so that it's quick and easy for them to throw together a gearbox.
Their setup works... but it does have room for improvement. Proper reshimming will remove excess slop in gear play that is present in even bone stock gearboxes.