Elite Alpha Trooper – Spring replacement and supporting mods

Blue Alpha Trooper!

Honestly, I never got the obsession with the Alpha Trooper. It's a solid blaster, but I always preferred the Raider myself. Therefore I wasn't super excited about the release of the Elite Alpha Trooper (EAT) as I already had a few Rampages to call my own. I am however apparently in the minority on this front so I grabbed an EAT to see what we could do with it. Today we'll run through a basic air restrictor (AR) removal and replace the spring. Specifically we'll be using a Black Tactical V2 spring which is quite a bit shorter than the stock spring, which means we'll also need to do a few lock removals as supporting mods as well.



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Tools/consumables needed

Phillips head screwdrivers
Drill and 6mm bit
A long, round hand file
BTV2 Spring
Stronger catch spring
Small flat hand file/Dremel with cutting disc/small modelling saw
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The less than amazing Australian spec grey trigger version. Conveniently, we'll be replacing the de-tuned spring with our new BTV2 anyway.



Start by removing the end cap. It's held on with two screws that are thicker than those in the rest of the blaster.



Then the priming grip.



Then the rest of the screws in the shell.

The two on the top here are thinner than than the rest.



The two on the tactical rail are the same thickness as the standard screw, only shorter.



And this one in front of the clip well. Same thickness, just shorter.



Hooray! The inside of the blaster.



As always, take a minute or two to have a good look around the internals and try to get an understanding of how each part works.









Ok then, on with the dis-assembly. Remove the jam door and the top shroud.



Then this screw holding the dart tooth in.





So we can remove the dart tooth.



Then we can remove the whole breech assembly.



Separate the breech and the plunger.



Looking down the back of the breech we should find an AR.



Knock that out with a drill.

Normally I'd recommend separating the breech from the sled but in this case I just could not get the locator pin free. It's not particularly bad if you don't, you just have to be more careful when drilling through that it doesn't grab and break the mounting point between the breech and the sled.

Once that's done, clean it up with a hand file.



Then reassemble.



Here's the new beefier spring on the bottom compared to the stock spring on the top. See the difference in length? This causes us some problems.



So, lets get back to the shell.



Remove the trigger bar. It's held in by one screw.



These two locks are the problem.



Remove both of those.



Then replace the trigger bar.

If you're keen you could remove the spring, grind/cut off the front nub, and glue the bar in it's forward position. This would provide added reliability in that when it you pull the trigger, it would fire; but it would also mean the blaster could fire with the breech only half closed, which would cause jams. Provided you're consistent with your priming, and your trigger discipline, you will get improved reliability from your blaster.



Next up is the clip release lock. We need to grind/cut/file this lip off.



Like so.



Doing this allows us to depress the clip release button, even when the blaster is primed. This is again necessary due to the shorter main spring.



See.



Then reassemble.



One last mod is a stronger catch spring. The new main spring puts a lot more strain on the catch and we need to improve that.

This spring in particular is one I grabbed from bunnings forever ago to use in a Longshot catch. I have no idea what the product number was unfortunately but it came in a pack of three and has a diameter of 9.35mm and an uncompressed length of 17.75mm.



Here it is compared to the stock spring.

Due to the increased diameter I did have to cut away some of the inside of the shell here, but I'm sure you'll figure out your own requirements based on your chosen spring pretty easily.



From here, reassemble and we're done. My camera died right at this point so there's no photos of said reassembly, but I'm sure you can work it out.

very nice mod guide mate, just beat ya to it

but anyway, in all seriousness, a very clean, and thorough writeup, and in quite a bit more depth than mine. nicely done

Ashrob.

All good dude. It was honestly seeing yours yesterday that prompted me to copy the post across from my blog. I try to do that as I go but often write a few posts in advance, and don't want to publish it elsewhere first.

I bought a spring from OWM (ebay) and used your guide to help me install it and remove the air-restictors but I have come to a problem.

When I put the blaster back together again, when priming the blaster, it seems as though the plunger is not being locked in when the spring is compressed, I can just slide the pump handle back and forward freely.

The OMW spring was the same length as the stock spring so i did not make those modifications that you needed to.

One thing I am concerned about is that when I was drilling out the air restrictor, a piece of the plunger tube came off also. Would the shorted tube be causing my problem?
Here is a pic of the plunger tube and 'extra' piece that came off:


Any help in this matter would be appreciated.

Apparently yes. I've heard of that coming off when other people removed the AR but I've done 3 so far and haven't had any problems. I guess glue it back on or glue something inside the plunger head to lengthen the prime.

EMEUTIER wrote:I bought a spring from OWM (ebay) and used your guide to help me install it and remove the air-restictors but I have come to a problem.

When I put the blaster back together again, when priming the blaster, it seems as though the plunger is not being locked in when the spring is compressed, I can just slide the pump handle back and forward freely.

Hey Emeutier, it sounds like you are having similar problem as I have. I have also swapped the stock spring with the those OWM spring (as for Retaliator and Rampage), I also experienced the plunger failed to lock in when I primed the pump handle back. The problem is due to the stock catch spring not strong enough to lock the plunger caused by the stronger OWM spring. As mentioned in Jeo's write-up he did swap the catch spring with a stronger one. So if you haven't done so, swap the catch spring. Cheers.

Thanks for the tips, is was the catch spring that needed to be replaced.

For future reference, I used a c-510 spring from bunnings.

Now my blaster shoots like a cannon

EMEUTIER wrote: Now my blaster shoots like a cannon

I wouldn't call mine a "cannon". I left the AR in as many reported very little increase in performance with it removed, with OMW spring in, tested with hot-glue-tip stock darts, elite darts and blue stinger darts, range only around 45-50 feet in parallel angle. I will only call it a "cannon" if it shoots close to 100 feet