Between you me and the gate post, the best thing you can do with the smoke system is throw it away. They are problematic, and a constant source of trouble.
When you are talking recoil are you talking track recoil or barrel recoil?
What you are experiencing is the same thing all of us veterans have experienced with Heng Long tanks, and why we have formed some of the opinions we have Your issues are well known and you should not feel you got a bad one. Some of these components on these tanks are just trouble.