I have on this day opened up my first ever AEG gearbox. Wow. So many parts both big and small. The AUG runs off of a V3 gearbox, with a short type motor (I had to find out this information, naturally. Took a bit of googling, but there seem to be pretty good resources abounds if you know what to look for). I'll be adding pictures to this post a little later.
My plan was to install the bearings and the air nozzle that arrived today in the mail, as well as shim the gearbox anew and de-grease and re-grease everything.
Opening the gearbox sensibly is not too hard to do if you know what you're doing. Luckily I had checked out some Youtube videos beforehand to see how to do it best. The most likely problem area is the main spring jumping out, which I avoided by placing a small screwdriver in the back of the spring guide and pressing down on it. Or so I thought. I didn't push down with quite enough force, and naturally the spring jumped out the back somewhat, throwing gears around somewhat. At least nothing got lost.
I've read the most likely places for air leaks are the cylinder head and the air nozzle, so I decided to test them out first. I didn't quite remember to release the tappet plate spring though, so that naturally jumps back as I lift the cylinder out of the gearbox.
After getting all the parts out of the gearbox, I put the gears to soak in a glass of turpentine to de-grease them. All the small bits go to a Scho-Ka-Kola tin so they don't get lost.
First I just tested the tightness of the cylinder and cylinder head. There is some leaking, but a few twists of PTFE tape and it's gone. As suspected, the nozzle, too, leaks like crazy. After switching over to the new, o-ring sealed SHS aluminium nozzle, there is no leak. I'm hopeful this will bring my power back up.
The new bearings didn't quite fit in so I took a file and ever so gently enlarged the holes. Now they fit, but are also loose enough to fall out when not held in place. I guess it's still fine. I did the shimming after watching several videos and reading up on it. Everything seems to run rather smoothly. There's some play on the gears, but I guess it's better to have them too loose than too tight.
I greased everything up with teflon grease and started to reassemble the box. The AUG has a selective trigger that allows for both semi and full auto simply by the shooter varying the trigger pull length. Short pull gives semi shots and pulling it all the way is full auto. The actual trigger actuation system must have been designed by a rather sadistic engineer, though, since it is made of two separate pieces that are not actually connected, and both are simply held in place by the gearbox shell.
When I finally got it all sorted out and the box back together and tried to run it, I noticed there was something weird. The anti-reversal latch would not activate at all. I soon realized there should be a spring on it, but where the hell was it? About 20 minutes of frantic searching later I find it lying on the floor about two meters from where I was originally sitting. The spring must have flown out as I was taking the gears out.
As if looking for the minuscule missing spring wasn't stressful enough, now I had to take the gearbox apart again so that I could get the one, tiny spring on. Same problems with the trigger pieces, same fiddling around and the need for at least three hands that are much smaller than I currently have.
I think I'm going to see nightmares filled with springs and gears tonight. At least I'm ready for bed, that's for sure.
My plan was to install the bearings and the air nozzle that arrived today in the mail, as well as shim the gearbox anew and de-grease and re-grease everything.
Opening the gearbox sensibly is not too hard to do if you know what you're doing. Luckily I had checked out some Youtube videos beforehand to see how to do it best. The most likely problem area is the main spring jumping out, which I avoided by placing a small screwdriver in the back of the spring guide and pressing down on it. Or so I thought. I didn't push down with quite enough force, and naturally the spring jumped out the back somewhat, throwing gears around somewhat. At least nothing got lost.
I've read the most likely places for air leaks are the cylinder head and the air nozzle, so I decided to test them out first. I didn't quite remember to release the tappet plate spring though, so that naturally jumps back as I lift the cylinder out of the gearbox.
After getting all the parts out of the gearbox, I put the gears to soak in a glass of turpentine to de-grease them. All the small bits go to a Scho-Ka-Kola tin so they don't get lost.
First I just tested the tightness of the cylinder and cylinder head. There is some leaking, but a few twists of PTFE tape and it's gone. As suspected, the nozzle, too, leaks like crazy. After switching over to the new, o-ring sealed SHS aluminium nozzle, there is no leak. I'm hopeful this will bring my power back up.
The new bearings didn't quite fit in so I took a file and ever so gently enlarged the holes. Now they fit, but are also loose enough to fall out when not held in place. I guess it's still fine. I did the shimming after watching several videos and reading up on it. Everything seems to run rather smoothly. There's some play on the gears, but I guess it's better to have them too loose than too tight.
I greased everything up with teflon grease and started to reassemble the box. The AUG has a selective trigger that allows for both semi and full auto simply by the shooter varying the trigger pull length. Short pull gives semi shots and pulling it all the way is full auto. The actual trigger actuation system must have been designed by a rather sadistic engineer, though, since it is made of two separate pieces that are not actually connected, and both are simply held in place by the gearbox shell.
When I finally got it all sorted out and the box back together and tried to run it, I noticed there was something weird. The anti-reversal latch would not activate at all. I soon realized there should be a spring on it, but where the hell was it? About 20 minutes of frantic searching later I find it lying on the floor about two meters from where I was originally sitting. The spring must have flown out as I was taking the gears out.
As if looking for the minuscule missing spring wasn't stressful enough, now I had to take the gearbox apart again so that I could get the one, tiny spring on. Same problems with the trigger pieces, same fiddling around and the need for at least three hands that are much smaller than I currently have.
I think I'm going to see nightmares filled with springs and gears tonight. At least I'm ready for bed, that's for sure.
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