The motor/piston system is encased in a off-white casing that is held with snaps and a couple screws. Dont forget to remove the turret. It is only held in with one screw.
Pop out the plunger tube. Careful cause there is a small spring. The turret has posts just like a Vulcan chain. just cut them out from the back.
Here is the plunger tube. I covered up that small hole with electrical tape.
The AR is an orange piece of plastic. In the plunger tube, there is also a white cross with a circle. It is what the spring pushes against to push the orange AR forward. I cut that out too. The end of the plunger tube is glued in. I used a knife to carefully separate the tube body from the end cap and break the glue seal. i only inserted the tip of the knife maybe 1-2mm in. Go all the way around the cicumference of tube cap. It should be ebough and use pliers to pull the cap off. Let the AR and spring fall out.
I put everything back together. I didnt even bother gluing the plunger tube cap on, it just nests into the tube.
Here is what the plunger and spring look like.
I have easily doubled the range. I estimate about 40-50 feet.
Edit: Update with more pics and video.
Here is a video of the swarmfire compared to my element and pistol splat. No where close haha. The Swarmfire has a NF spring inside it.
spring dimensions
Length at rest: 74.35mm
Length at full compression: 11.4mm
Diammeter: 22mm
Picture comparing NF spring (the longer one) to the Swarmfire spring (shorter one)
Here are some more detailed pictures of the entire Swarmfire.
exterior
Yellow accent half shell removed
Gray shell removed.
Gearbox opened. the white disc can be simply pulled off to get access to plunger rod and spring.
The plunger tube head has a foam seal that is pushed up against the turret. This little slot is where the spring goes.
When putting the plunger tube back in do not put the spring in that slot. Put the tube back in first. Then from the outside insert the spring into this hole. It makes it much easier.
Here is a little exploratory images that may give you an idea for possible mods. The turret is two parts. the "barrels" and the cogged ring that rotates the barrels. They are not glued together!!! Not even held together with screws. The barrels are screwed into a post in the gear box. That is what holds the cogged ring up against the gearbox. I used a stepped drill bit to clean the cogged ring's holes. However there is no longer any ledge to act as a dart stop. So putting in stock nerf darts has the possibility of going in too deep and possibly hitting the gear box as it rotates.
In this picture you can see the white post poking out past the cogged ring. I am able to nest 9/16 inch petg into the cogged ring. However it is a loose fit. I suspect a 1mm clearance around the PETG. However it shows that this gun is ready for some simple upgrades.
Oh but only if you could rear load this fully automatic turreted nest of bees? Oh but you can. It is as if Nerf knows what we will do with this. With a minor snip here and there you could open up the shell even more for better access and ergonomics to rear load the turret. And from BOTH sides if you wanted to.
Edited by Solscud007, 20 March 2011 - 08:17 AM.