Ares AK not shooting
 

Hi,

I have an Ares AK AEG that seems to work normally except BBs don't come out at all when it shoots. The gun has seen minimal use, but sat for a number of years. When I tried to use it after those number of years, at first a BB would come out here and there, but now none come out. When I took the mag out and manually put a BB in the feeding port on the barrel and pulled the trigger, the BB shot back out the feeding port.

But BBs won't come out the barrel! I've checked for obstructions and there aren't any. I only have one mid cap (these mags are impossible to find and they don't even make high caps for the SA VZ 58), so could it be this mid cap syndrome I've read about?

Any advice would be great.
Thanks.

Did you store it with bbs in the magazine?

I don't know. It's actually my brother's gun and I wouldn't be surprised at all if it was stored with BBs in the magazine.

Honestly it could just be a worn out spring in the magazine

I did think of that and replaced the spring in the mag. It has great tension. I'm stumped though because when I put a BB in through the end of the barrel, it shoots out just fine (and I can feel air shooting out the end of the barrel when I dry fire it). But for some reason BBs can't get into the barrel from the magazine. Whenever I pull the mag out, 4 BBs fall out like expected.

It will fire a BB if after I put the BB in the firing port, I put my cleaning rod inside and gently nudge the BB forward so it's under the hopup more. I'm not familiar with how Ares SV 58s come apart, otherwise I would have already done it. (it's not normal though). But I guess it has to be either that the front of the barrel off somehow or the hopup is blocking the BB somehow.

If you turn the gun upside down and shoot and bb's come out then your mag is the problem.

And while the gun is upside down you should be able to see the nozzle pushing bb's in and out of the hop up chamber. If you do not see it moving you may have a damaged tappet plate. Not uncommon for ares.

Otherwise it could be a case of an over-hopped or dirty hop up rubber.

I don't see the air nozzle pushing BBs forward at all so sounds like a damaged tappet plate. I'll take a part the gun completely.

Appreciate the guidance.

I took it apart and the tappet plate is broken (see pic below). Pretty crazy considering the gun has probably only had 2000 rounds put through it - but it is probably 7 or 8 years old.

Now I just need to see if I can find an Ares SV 58 part in Canada ;)

Get an aftermarket one. The tappet plate should not be proprietary in design.

If I bought something that broke within an unexpectedly short life of operation why would I buy the same thing just for it to happen again when I can get a better replacement part?

Try lonex or shs.

Sounds great. My brain kind of assumed nothing aftermarket would work since it's Ares. I'll look into that though, thanks.

Ares parts
 

Rainy Eyes is correct, Ares are notorious for using soft plastic in their tappets. I replaced two Ares tappets ordered direct from Ares for replacements and within a week they were destroyed

Do some research to make sure they aren't proprietary because a lot of what Ares makes is making upgrades and repair a major pita

Consider yourself lucky if aftermarket parts fit and it isn't crumbling apart while you work on it

If you breath on some Ares pieces they crumble like a Man side-eyeing Medusa on a switch back

Yah, nothing aftermarket fits. It's proprietary. I guess I'm going to get some good practice replacing the tappet plate in it!

Oh god that's a PITA. Sorry about that.

Can you post a picture comparing the two? Curious which part doesn't fit. Are you confident that it's a v3 tappet plate and not a v2?

I've attached 2 photos. The blue one is a version 3, and the black one is the one out of the Ares VZ58 AK. I'm definitely not confident it's a version 3. I have almost no knowledge of Ares products or AKs!

Not sure if you want to try your luck with an LCT RPD tappet plate that seems to fit the bill:

https://www.herooutdoors.com/lct-rep...d-aeg-gearbox/

The main difference appears to be the nozzle height for the tappet plate.