Alphatex Hex grenade light-striking primers

[SSPKali]

My old and rather battered AlphaTex BFG let me down 4 times at the weekend. It was denting the primers but not enough to set them off. The fifth time I tried it it finally worked. Over the last couple of years and 80+ primers it has probably not gone off twice.

Has anyone taken one apart? Is that even possible? Is there a known fix for this issue?

Thanks in advance!

 

[SSPKali]

Managed to strip it down, clean and grease it and remoce some of the burrs on the “nipple” part of the plunger. I also added some shims under the firing pin to take sone of the play out of it. Now moving much smoother so hopefully it will hit the primers hard and deeper (ooh matron!) and make a big bang! 
 

Used a good amount of blue Loctite on the wobble head thread to make sure it doesn’t unscrew being lobbed through doors.

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[Rogerborg]

Thanks for the follow-through.  I have to have a similar go at my TRMR, which is also light-striking now.  Given that we're looking at a fraction of a mm between bang and bust, it's amazing that any of our shed-built toys ever work at all.

 

[SSPKali]

Thanks for the follow-through.  I have to have a similar go at my TRMR, which is also light-striking now.  Given that we're looking at a fraction of a mm between bang and bust, it's amazing that any of our shed-built toys ever work at all.

Tolerances on it were good but I think the dirt and burrs along with zero grease was meaning that it moved sluggishly and didn’t impart enough of a blow on the primer. 
I still need to find a replacement ball detent unit (probably 3mm dia over all!) to ensure good indexing of the twist part.

 

[Rogerborg]

Tolerances on it were good but I think the dirt and burrs along with zero grease was meaning that it moved sluggishly and didn’t impart enough of a blow on the primer. 

It's tricky to figure out if it's not slamming in hard enough, or deep enough.  Our strikers might be made from monkey-metal nails, for all we know.

I still need to find a replacement ball detent unit (probably 3mm dia over all!) to ensure good indexing of the twist part.

Preach, I think my TRMR multishot base is running a random bearing from a pack that I used to rebuild a trackball.