Help rebuilding gearbox

[paradoxum]

Snow Wolf M14A Pulse Rifle gearbox (v6 I think) - pretty much just a thompson / gearbox with a shell.

I used engine degreaser on the whole gearbox so everything needs oiling/greasing properly (got abbey gun oil/silicone, and some motorbike engine grease on hand);

Second thing is wiring the Gate NanoAAB to it, should I be using the single-wire contact or the double? I wired the double up like so, but haven't put any solder to it yet incase it's wrong. I really am not sure which I should use single or double signal wire to the mosfet;

Does anyone have any good video links to help me with rebuilding this and what parts to oil/grease/silicone etc? 

I've found a few on youtube but most of them the guys hands are in the way most of the time, can't see properly, or they are such poor quality not worth using. 

I bought a SHS shim set which came the other day so I have everything now ready to rebuild it and finally get my rifle back up and running I just need some help, willing to chat on whatsapp or something if anyone wants to really help me just get this done in half an hour or so.

Thanks in advance,

para

 

[Adolf Hamster]

2 wires to the trigger contacts (polarity doesnt matter), female deans to the motor (ensure you've got the polarity right), male deans to battery.

Next i'd check air seal, start with piston/cylinder/cylinder head, put your thumb over the end of the cylinder head and try to push the piston in, you should get a lot of resistance and it should want to spring back out. If it doesnt you have a leak either:

-At your thumb- hold harder

-At the cylinder head- upgraded versions, fresh o rings or application of ptfe tape can fix this

-At the piston head- the quick and dirty solution to this is to give the o ring on the piston a wee stretch, but be careful not to break it, either that or a new o ring. Some pistons can have poor sealing faces on the back (silent pistons for example) which are better off replaced with standard.

Once you've got good compression repeat again with the nozzle added in, if that leaks you have limited options depending on what kind of length nozzle it needs. Personally i like brass nozzles with o rings, seem to seal pretty well.

You can add a little grease to the nozzle and piston head to help things.

Next is shimming, there are different methods but the main points to note are to keep the box empty (makes it easier to see if there's play and to turn the gears to see if they're free) and also to make sure you tighten the box up, you can have what seems like perfect shimming with hand pressure on the halves that then siezes when you tighten the box up on final assembly.

Also worth checking the gears for backlash- if they mesh tightly or if there's some play from start to finish. Shouldnt be too big an issue if the gears are matched to the box nicely (eg if its all stock)

Next is aoe, put your gears in and the cylinder with the piston (no tappet plate just yet), with the piston fully forward turn the sector gear until its just about to pick up the piston and see what the tooth angle looks like, you want it engaging nicely without an angle that's trying to push the piston up and without catching the other teeth.

There's different methods of spacing the piston, most stock guns, sorbo being common. Personally i pop an o ring in there thats thick enough and glue it onto the cylinder head.

If you dont have one already a thrust bearing on the spring guide is a good idea, you can get them on the piston too but i prefer keeping the piston assembly as light as possible without swiss cheesing it.

I pop a bit of grease over the gears at the meshing areas and give them a spin to distribute it, also a wee dab on the piston guide rails just behind the piston on both sides and on the cutoff lever cam.

When it comes to final assembly use magnets to keep things like the anti reversal latch in position (unless you're lucky enough for it to play nice without it) apart from that it's a case of finger twister and trying not to force it, it's one of those things that when you get it right it'll go together easy.

Then give it a test fire on the bench and get your motor mesh right. I preferr to go from tighter to looser, less risk of stripping teeth if it's too far open at the start. Listen out for whining noise that's the hallmark of bad meshing (either shims or motor height). It's not a bad idea to threadlock the motor adjustment screw to prevent it backing out mid game.

Of course having wrote all that i'm waiting for someone to pop in and explain exactly how i've been doing it wrong, which will either be a fun learning experience or the start of a massive row

 

[paradoxum]

That is definitely a big help, but without pictures or a video when you talk about certain things I kinda of just lose track, I'm a bit autistic and following text-instructions is hard for me which is why I'm trying to find a solid video for this - hell, when I get it done I'll record my own and upload it to help others - it's only hard until you learn what you are doing and then it's easy.

I mean when I get to here;

> Next is aoe, put your gears in and the cylinder with the piston (no tappet plate just yet), with the piston fully forward turn the sector gear until its just about to pick up the piston and see what the tooth angle looks like, you want it engaging nicely without an angle that's trying to push the piston up and without catching the other teeth.

My eyes just kind of glaze over and I don't follow what parts you're talking about etc. Shit, I'll set my webcam up and stream it on twitch and you could just direct me on exactly what to do via chat if you're up for that - once I have done it once I'll have it locked down, it's just looking at all the steps seems insurmountable. But I appreciate your writeup and have bookmarked it along with everything else for when I get to work on it. Thank you.

 

[Adolf Hamster]

It can be daunting first time for sure, tbh i might take the time and pop out a full guide with pictures, at least from the perspective of generic things to watch out for in any aeg box.

I'm not the most experienced tech out there for sure but i've got to the level that not everything i tinker with immediately blows up

I'm off a shootin' tomorrow but maybe some night during the week i'll pull the box from the f2000 and get some pictures together.

 

[paradoxum]

Thanks I would do the same with a guide/pictures etc once I know what I'm doing, I'm just a pathological perfectionist so unless I feel it is 'perfect' it gives me anxiety and kinda freezes me into not doing anything because I don't think I'll be able to do it properly, it's a personal issue, but yeah, just explaining. 

More pics of the gearbox parts; https://imgur.com/a/oXeRNrw

Getting some advice from a guy on the aliens forums too here; http://forum.alienslegacy.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=18519

Might do it tomorrow or monday, maybe do a bit at a time and do it in chunks rather than thinking of doing it all at once etc.

I recently got an M870 shottie holstered on my back like Hicks, 'I like to keep this handy.. for close encounters.', but after shooting targets in the back on 3-shot it's accurate as fuck and could be used as a primary, but would really prefer to get my rifle up and running before I play again. I've got some fun things I haven't used in play yet like a Tornado2 frag nade and an IR-sensor/tripwire claymore which will be fun, claymore fits in a pouch on the back of my battlebelt like so, it's pretty slick; 

 

[paradoxum]

I will paypal anybody 20 quid if they help me put my gun back together over webcam / text chat on discord or something like that. V6 gearbox, from what I have read probably the easiest gearboxes to work with - please will SOMEBODY just help me get my god-damn rifle back together? 20 quid for half an hour of your time, come on. please.

please.

 

[Adolf Hamster]

Im workin on a guide, just gotta take some pics

 

[paradoxum]

Awesome thank you. I'll hold off on doing it then.

this is what my 'workbench' looks like right now:

https://imgur.com/a/EofpsqS

Some more and some annotations;

https://imgur.com/a/cQKm8T3

 

[paradoxum]

Alright I sat down and had a go myself tonight following these vids;

But there are parts that these vids don't seem to show so I have no idea where they go and I have a couple spare bits. Take a look;

https://imgur.com/a/PW454e1

 

[Asomodai]

26 minutes ago, paradoxum said:

Alright I sat down and had a go myself tonight following these vids;

Click to shrink...

Your photos of what you've done already are very poor quality and I cant tell what has been installed, but I think the smaller spring is the tappet spring (if not then the cutoff lever spring), the large spring is for the barrel/hop unit and the rest is probably for the selector which is unique to the pulse rifle. 

 

[paradoxum]

I can take more pics with better lighting - at the current point of the rebuild I know where everything goes so I can do it up to where it is now, but none of the (I've got about 8 bookmarked now) videos of people dis/reassembling this gearbox don't seem to show where the parts I have circled in red go. Shall I just record a vide of me putting it together to where it is now and you can tell me where to go next or any parts I'm missing? 

Your photos of what you've done already are very poor quality and I cant tell what has been installed, but I think the smaller spring is the tappet spring (if not then the cutoff lever spring), the large spring is for the barrel/hop unit and the rest is probably for the selector which is unique to the pulse rifle. 

Click to shrink...

It's all well and good saying X spring is for Y part, but without a picture showing *where* the thing goes I still have no idea, not blaming you or anything and thanks for trying to help etc. I'm hoping the guy who said he was gonna do it and post pics of the process comes through and matches my gearbox so I know where all the bits go. I'm especially worried about the 2 tiny springs and the tiny brass nub and those two plastic bits that look like they are part of the gear area yet don't see any obvious way to install them.

I got a new pack of shims for it and 'shimmed' it when putting the gears on (about 5-6 came out of it when I took it apart but they were all bent and shit hence new ones). I could probably take it all apart and rebuild to my current state in less than 10mins and if I do it on video and link it to you guys you could tell me what I'm missing or whatever. 

I'll do that later today (wednesday) - one thing though, I noticed the teeth on my piston are kind of stripping at the points, since I've got the gearbox open and everything right now I figure if I'm gonna replace it I might aswell do it now, I counted the teeth on it and it has 13 teeth - if I'm replacing it, which one should I grab from here? https://www.fire-support.co.uk/category/shs/ 

I haven't changed the actual gears or anything and the pistons all have different amounts of teeth on them so I don't know at all whether one with more or less will do anything, or if it does what /exactly/ it would affect performance wise (or even work) - if I'm getting a new piston, what about the piston head, or even a whole new set of gears? they're not expensive and I've sunk a lot ofmoney already into this £300 gun so I kinda just want it to be as best as possible, any advice at all would be appreciated.

Thanks again,

para

 

[paradoxum]

I got on webcam on discord and voice chat and a friendly american dude helped me get it back together - so simple after doing it once and knowing what you're doing. still need to do some smaller things but pretty much sorted now I think.