KJW hi-capa 5.1 doesn't lock on empty mags
 

Hi,

I just purchased a brand new out of the box KJW hi-capa 5.1.

I have tested with 7 different mags and when the mag is empty it locks back with 4 of the mags and with 3 of them it never locks back. All mags are used and official TM mags.

My question : what should I look out for on the mag itself that could be causing this?

The follower, on the right side looking at the front of the mag

And/or follower spring - if BB's have been left loaded, this can sometimes weaken the follower spring quite a bit.

Styrak's probably right though. Look for wear on the nub that engages the slide stop (it pokes out on the left side of the mag).

I see what you mean. Thanks.

I tested it without the slide and with the 3 "faulty" mags the slide stop lifts up but very weakly.

With the other mag it gets puushed up enough to move all the way to the other side.

Solutions?

If I glue 1 or 2 layers of thin plastic (kind of like blister pack plastic) on top of the nub, would it create enough pressure to engange the slide lock you think?

I guess that changing the follower spring and the nub part would be ideal but I was wondering if my quick fix idea could do the trick.

Are you using stock KJW branded mags? I've found that the WE and TM mags do not have a long enough follower to consistently engage the slide lock.

I bought a few KJW mags and problem was solved. This is not the only instance of KJW parts being slightly off Marui factory spec (diameter of the take down pin for example).

The same thing happened to my WE hi-capa. For a temporary fix I simply placed 2 bb's under the feed spring in the mag. Works perfectly now.

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/n...8/100_6701.jpg

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/n...100_6699-1.jpg
Hope this helps.

You could try stretching your springs slighty.

Coldsmoke's solution would work, but you would have less capacity.

Spring tension modifications will only work if the following is not applicable.

Speaking of the follower itself though, are the followers worn down? Could be that, I've had that happen on clone 1911 mags.

All mags are TM mags so the slight difference with KJW mags might explain the problem.

So I guess my idea to stick a thin layer of plastic on top of the follower would fix the problem by making it closer to the KJW follower?

Or you could contact KJW directly and order replacement followers. They will probably be no more than 1$ or 2$ each and shipping is 2,50$ (from my experience with them in the past, their prices are VERY low when you order directly).

Their contact is: kjworks@ms47.hinet.net

They sometimes take a few days to answer, but they always do. Get the part number from the manual, makes things much faster and it saves a few days of bouncing emails to confirm exactly which part you need.

Thanks for the contact Drakker, will be very useful.

like mention by others, it is the follower that's causing the problem. I have the exact problem with one of my mags. And compared with the others that works, there is a .5mm difference. Quick fix would be to glue on a thin piece of plastic to it or just replace it all together.

Hmm, so with the plastic shim, do you just cut out a piece that fits over top the nub on the follower that engages the slide stop? How reliably would that work? I'm wanting to buy up a bunch of China-made clone 1911 mags and retro-fit them to TM standards, and this would be an excellent way of taking care of the follower spec problems.

I will test it tonight and let you know.

Thank you Silverthorn for starting this thread and Coldsmoke308, Styrak and for everyone else for your input.

I was having the exact same problem as Silverthorn and it wore out my stock TM abs slide since the locking lever would only come up a little bit.

I had a broken Magpul AEG EMAG lying around so I took out the spring and cut it longer than my TM Mag Spring and it locked every-now-and-then.

Still unhappy with the results I figure out how the mechanism of the locking lever works so I took it a step further and cut a mm off the bottom part of the mag lip and it works like a charm now.

http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/6...downloadki.jpg

Thank you guys. :O)