Terminology - What's what?

[Hubert]

Hmm, none of this exactly fills me with confidence...
Anyone have any experience with the ICS L85? I think that's what I'll work on first.

Where's Mr. Finius?

Click to shrink...

If it's any help, during my 8 months of researching airsoft SA80s to replace my AA model, the only forum posts (searched a lot of forums) about ICS L85s that had variants of the phrase "...so now my gun's buggered..." were almost always* started off with "I thought it'd be a great idea to open my gun and fiddle with the gearbox..."

*There are of course exceptions, but these seemed were incredibly rare. Unless the ICS owning community cba to visit forums...

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

Really not helping with the confidence there Hubert lol.

 

[Hubert]

Yeah, in hindsight I realise I didn't quite understand what you were trying to ask, and didn't phrase my answer properly anyway.

Trying to say that of the few times I've seen people posting "HALP!!1!11!!!", it's almost always been down to a potentially inexperienced owner breaking/losing something, rather than the design of gun itself being so bad it's impossible to work on.

Youtube it, I'm pretty sure there are more than a few people who've posted "how to take apart an ICS L85" (And maybe they show you how to put it back together too!)

Alternatively - save your cash, experiment on an old/broken gearbox and get a payed gunsmith to do the job you actually want doing...

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

Trying to say that of the few times I've seen people posting "HALP!!1!11!!!", it's almost always been down to the owner breaking/losing something, rather than the gun itself.
Youtube it, I'm pretty sure there are more than a few people who've posted "how to take apart an ICS L85" (And maybe they show you how to put it back together too!)

Alternatively - save your cash, experiment on an old/broken gearbox and get a payed gunsmith to do the job you actually want doing...

Click to shrink...

I would just pay someone to do it, but I don't know of any shops that employ someone with that level of know-how.

If what Finius did to his doesn't sound too complicated then I might just be able to do it myself, it's worth a try. If I end up totally FUBARing it, I'll just buy a new gearbox/motor set lol.

 

[geoffreym]

That's a cool ani gif
As with "geoffreym" don't quote me, I am no expert but my understanding was the bushing is the insert you put into the gearbox case. My original ones were in plastic and they reduce the gearbox 'hole' size to match the pin sticking out of the gear. They come in 6, 7, and 8mm sizes depending on the size of the holes in the gearbox (I had to buy 6mm and went with metal to replace the dead plastic which had snapped). You can also get them in oil retaining, ball bearing and other flavours.

Shims are as geoffreym's comments, small discs of metal (washers to me but much thinner) which you put under gears to help sort out spacing.

Click to shrink...

Tappet plates ARE NOT the part that determines fire-mode. That would be your selector plate.
Tappet plates pull the air nozzle out of the way of the feed. They are attatched to the air nozzle, fit through a slot in the cylinder head, have a spring pulling them forwards and are pulled backwards by a small notch on the sector gear.

Bearings and Bushings are similar, they are what fit into the 6/7/8mm gearbox shell to make the holes a uniform and precise size for the gear shaftf to fit in. Bushings are simpley machined parts, bearings are bushings which spin more freely - in general use bearings, less wear and a higher ROF, use bushings for high stress jobs.

Shims are very thin, very accurate metal washers (they are often quoted in 4/5 sizes of 0.1mm, 0.15mm, 0.2mm and 0.3mm), they are used to space the often poorly fitting components (gears in particular) this means the gears wobble less, are aligned better and basically they make the gears run smoother with no clashing or interference.

Click to shrink...

well i haven't yet broken a rifle, so i'm giving myself a pat on the back, and even though i don't know the names of the parts, i can still strip and clean one very well.

(that wasn't meant in sarcasm, i learnt the hard way how to do things lol)

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

Ok, so I'm thinking that to increase consistency I'll need to shim my gearbox and buy a better spring.

Anything else anyone would advise?

Also, do you think I ought to just buy a high quality M120, or buy a higher power spring and cut it so that it wears out more slowly?

 

[Rock-climby-Dave]

no. get the spring you need, cutting it makes it inconsistent + is a pain. they all run out just as quick.