ICS L86 nightmare

[Battalia]

So I received an ICS L86 from friends and family as a gift. Great! I took it out (and chrono'd it at 250 FPS. Tried not to think about it too much, but that was my first warning sign.) to a match and after about 100 shots my next trigger pull gives me a lovely spinning gear sound. I tried adjusting the motor adjustment screw but that did nothing. So I shelved it and played with a different gun.

next day I ripped her all apart and found out I had managed to rip off the first tooth of my piston. (thing was solid metal, how did that happen already?!) Alright, fine. Order a new Krytac piston and wait the obligatory 2 months for shipping.

Finally she is here aaaaaand the extra reinforced teeth are in the way of the gears. Shoulda known. Oh well, buzz it off as best as I can without compromising the piston and now we are good. Throw in some lube and shims and bolt her back together. Chrono'd at 300 FPS. Really? just 300. This thing is supposed to do 400 out of the box in the 3rd notch on the gearbox...

So I took her apart again, and this time examined the hop up. Threw a maple leaf bucking I had laying around on it and chrono again, 300. And with .20's now with the hop at as low as it can go the BB's sail straight up. Great. Did more damage than I did good.

After about 8 hours of taking it apart and trying to fix item after item I've still got no success, and I can barely shoot anything in front of me with as little hop as I can before the BB's sail straight up.

I even threw in an M160 spring to see a meager 10 FPS increase on a .20. I've tried gluing an o-ring on the plastic piston nozzle to try and get a better seal... But now I mis-feeding on semi.

I've read you need heavier BB's for this gun, but that doesn't fix my FPS issue, only hurts it.

So to sum up, my gun with hardly 300 BB's through it now:
BB's sail straight up with hop set to as little as possible
Mis-feeds on semi, but auto seems to be okay
FPS is 350 now with an M160 and the spring position in the 3rd "400 fps" position.

At this point I'm ready to give up. Any outside insight would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Gato]

Originally Posted by Battalia

So I received an ICS L86 from friends and family as a gift. Great! I took it out (and chrono'd it at 250 FPS. Tried not to think about it too much, but that was my first warning sign.) to a match and after about 100 shots my next trigger pull gives me a lovely spinning gear sound. I tried adjusting the motor adjustment screw but that did nothing. So I shelved it and played with a different gun.

next day I ripped her all apart and found out I had managed to rip off the first tooth of my piston. (thing was solid metal, how did that happen already?!) Alright, fine. Order a new Krytac piston and wait the obligatory 2 months for shipping.

Finally she is here aaaaaand the extra reinforced teeth are in the way of the gears. Shoulda known. Oh well, buzz it off as best as I can without compromising the piston and now we are good. Throw in some lube and shims and bolt her back together. Chrono'd at 300 FPS. Really? just 300. This thing is supposed to do 400 out of the box in the 3rd notch on the gearbox...

So I took her apart again, and this time examined the hop up. Threw a maple leaf bucking I had laying around on it and chrono again, 300. And with .20's now with the hop at as low as it can go the BB's sail straight up. Great. Did more damage than I did good.

After about 8 hours of taking it apart and trying to fix item after item I've still got no success, and I can barely shoot anything in front of me with as little hop as I can before the BB's sail straight up.

I even threw in an M160 spring to see a meager 10 FPS increase on a .20. I've tried gluing an o-ring on the plastic piston nozzle to try and get a better seal... But now I mis-feeding on semi.

I've read you need heavier BB's for this gun, but that doesn't fix my FPS issue, only hurts it.

So to sum up, my gun with hardly 300 BB's through it now:
BB's sail straight up with hop set to as little as possible
Mis-feeds on semi, but auto seems to be okay
FPS is 350 now with an M160 and the spring position in the 3rd "400 fps" position.

At this point I'm ready to give up. Any outside insight would be appreciated. Thanks!

At least you don't seem to be suffering from the issue that plagues most of them. The contacts in the pistol grip that interact with the ones on the mechbox.

My buddy impulse bought one of these when I turned around for literally 5 minutes to do something else, worst purchase he's ever made.

[gonzala]

I'm not familiar with your aeg at all, but can you take out the hop chamber and look through it on the lowest setting? see what the nub is doing in there. otherwise take apart the whole chamber and put everything back in properly, could be that the nub is jammed up in there causing your hop issues.

were the missfeeds happening before you glued the oring to the nozzle? if not I'd take off the oring and see where you're at with that. you can also sand off some of the front of the tappet plate and shorten the spring a little so its tighter and pulls the tappet plate forward with more force.

fps issues are a bitch, but it sounds like you have a airseal leak if your m160 is a known good spring. if airseal was good in the gearbox it could be between the gearbox and hop chamber or in the chamber itself. can you shim the hop chamber closer to the gearbox? maybe your mags are pushing on the hop chamber funny. sorry I don't have any specific tips for your aeg in particular.

[Battalia]

Originally Posted by Gato

At least you don't seem to be suffering from the issue that plagues most of them. The contacts in the pistol grip that interact with the ones on the mechbox.

My buddy impulse bought one of these when I turned around for literally 5 minutes to do something else, worst purchase he's ever made.

Really? I thought the system was pretty good. Never had any issues so far. Suppose I'll have to keep an eye on that.

Originally Posted by gonzala

I'm not familiar with your aeg at all, but can you take out the hop chamber and look through it on the lowest setting? see what the nub is doing in there. otherwise take apart the whole chamber and put everything back in properly, could be that the nub is jammed up in there causing your hop issues.

were the missfeeds happening before you glued the oring to the nozzle? if not I'd take off the oring and see where you're at with that. you can also sand off some of the front of the tappet plate and shorten the spring a little so its tighter and pulls the tappet plate forward with more force.

fps issues are a bitch, but it sounds like you have a airseal leak if your m160 is a known good spring. if airseal was good in the gearbox it could be between the gearbox and hop chamber or in the chamber itself. can you shim the hop chamber closer to the gearbox? maybe your mags are pushing on the hop chamber funny. sorry I don't have any specific tips for your aeg in particular.

When I take the barrel and hop assembly out, even on the lowest setting the hop is still present in the barrel. Wondering about modifying it so it's not so extreme.

Yea, the misfeeds are new. I'm kinda with you on removing the o-ring I added but like you said, I'm almost certain I've got an air leak issue so that was one of my last ditch attempts to fix that. I'll have to try your other suggestions however. I've not tried anything about ensuring the hop and gearbox have a good seal as they are two separate units in the L86, you can remove the gearbox and leave the hop-up still in place. I'll look into those areas and see what I can find. Thanks for the suggestions, at the very least it gives me more items to examine.

[venture]

I have sold dozens of these (and the L85's) and never had any problems with hopup or air leaks.

[gman1211]

To test your air seal, fire the gun so the nozzle is contacting the hop up bucking then blow down the barrel. If you don't have any air leaks, you won't be able to blow very much, and it will compress.


***should also mention if it has a black nozzle it probably does not have an Oring in it. You can buy an upgraded nozzle from ICS.

[RainyEyes]

What do you mean you GLUED the oring to the nozzle?!?!

In all honesty you probably should have done a little more research. If you were able to afford a new spring you can afford an $8 nozzle with double o-ring.

Test for compression first before you even consider getting a new spring. The problem generally lies with with the piston head and the cylinder if increasing spring strength yields little to no significant difference. Most guns barely need an m10 for 350 fps so you KNOW that there might be something wrong.

The misfeeding is probably because the nozzle isn't able to push forward all the way with a hard crusty nitrile o-ring stuck to it and the cylinder head and isn't pushing the bb's out. I would recommend scraping that thing off if you have a chance to salvage it.

[Battalia]

Originally Posted by gman1211

To test your air seal, fire the gun so the nozzle is contacting the hop up bucking then blow down the barrel. If you don't have any air leaks, you won't be able to blow very much, and it will compress.


***should also mention if it has a black nozzle it probably does not have an Oring in it. You can buy an upgraded nozzle from ICS.

Thanks for the info, I'll give that a shot and let you know my results. Yea, it was a block nozzle with no o-ring. Are you sure upgraded ones are available? I looked, but to no avail. I'd be glad to be proven wrong. All I could find is an ICS aluminum nozzle that doesn't have the o-ring anyways, or a replacement black one. (http://www.evike.com/products/45838/)

Originally Posted by RainyEyes

What do you mean you GLUED the oring to the nozzle?!?!

In all honesty you probably should have done a little more research. If you were able to afford a new spring you can afford an $8 nozzle with double o-ring.

Test for compression first before you even consider getting a new spring. The problem generally lies with with the piston head and the cylinder if increasing spring strength yields little to no significant difference. Most guns barely need an m10 for 350 fps so you KNOW that there might be something wrong.

The misfeeding is probably because the nozzle isn't able to push forward all the way with a hard crusty nitrile o-ring stuck to it and the cylinder head and isn't pushing the bb's out. I would recommend scraping that thing off if you have a chance to salvage it.

Well, the fact that it was an 8 dollar nozzle was the basis for modding it. I mean, why not? Even if it mis-feeds, if it fixed the issue, at least I'd know where the issue was. But the issue persists. But you are probably right. If it can be salvaged, I will, but if not, a replacement shouldn't be hard to find.

As for the spring, the spring was loose and handy, so it was an easy way to test an FPS increase. Suppose at least I have some tests to make. Thanks for the information.

[gman1211]

http://www.icsbb.com/product/ml-38-l...-metal-nozzle/

The above part is what you are after. ICS will sell parts directly to customers (Email them at service@icsbb.com), I buy stuff from them 3-4 times a year myself. The shipping prices are not great - but they always toss in some free stuff like patches.