TM & Clone AK Battery Tray Removal Modification

[Ian_Gere]

So, there comes a time in every TM or clone AK owner's life when they realise that the plastic battery tray under the top cover is a really crap piece of design. It takes up a lot of room, it can be quite awkward to get back on properly during gun reassembly, and there are some fairly important parts of it which are so poxy that they break easily. The trouble is, if you just get rid of it, there is then nothing to for the bolt carrier spring to press against and you can't just cut the spring down and put it right at the back of the bar it sits on, because there would then not be enough room for it to compress in, so you wouldn't be able to adjust the hop at all easily.

Well, I wanted to fit a Turnigy Nano-Tech 11.1V 25-50C 1300mAh LiPo stick. I thought they were meant to replace NiMh AK stick batteries, and maybe they are, but it just wouldn't fit under the top cover properly. The battery tray had to go. The method is to attack the steel strap which locks the gearbox shell halves with a Dremmel:

Once the strap is refitted to the GB this little hook holds the metal flap for the spring to press against:

It's not perfect. The bolt carrier bulges out slightly which makes it a bit stiff to operate, but that does allow it to lock open for hop adjustment, woohoo!

 

Another problem on this particular gun, which I've encountered before, is that the tiny spring which the rod presses against when you press the top cover retention catch is pretty weak, so getting the top cover to lock on wasn't easy due to the stiffness this mod has brought about. I added another weaker spring (which is intended for some Hornby train set thingumabob - I bought a pack of them for another project a while ago because they were the only ones I could find this size, but they're too weak alone) just pressed sideways into the original:

Tatiana is now back together and working well. The 11.1V makes the motor jump noticeably inside the pistol grip, which feels slightly alarming, and she now fires at approx 19.4rps, which also feels a bit over the top, but hey, it's easy enough to fire short bursts. The mod is working well...