Re-Aligned Barrel, Cricket .25 cal
My gun started to leak recently. I ordered O-rings from Ernest and disassembled the gun and replaced o-rings on the valve housing. I didn’t have a way to remove the regulator at the time so reassembled and hoped that would do it. It didn’t so I’ll have to go in and just replace all.
I noticed that when I re-aligned the barrel it no longer touched the breech housing…which after a little research this is the way it’s supposed to be in order to minimize POI shift. Greg had mentioned I do this a while back. There should be a 0.5 mm gap.
This re-alignment has resulted in a very significant improvement in groups.
At 30 yards, (where I zero), 5 shots was just one single hole…looked like one shot. 50 yd. is really great but last night I shot at 70 and it’s the best group I’ve ever gotten at that distance.
If you don’t count the lone hit at 5 o clock on the right target I would have had a sub 1″ group at 70 yds for 12 shots! For me that’s a personal best! This gun continues to amaze me. One heck of a shooter!
KP
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Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
…… … .. almost a year KP ?
Crickets are great and has proven time and time again to be a real shooter.
It’s darn hard to be a well seasoned Cricket !!
Leaky gauge ? ……… I believe you’re the first I’ve heard.
Nice shooting by the way and good to hear an update on the fix Sir.
~ GReg , p.s. MK I, bottom right …… never say, never … :8:
Wow….I have been wrestling with the Cricket leak for some time now. Actually got frustrated and put the gun down to concentrate on the Impact. Well the Impact had to go to Ernest.
So with Ernest’s help we found the problem to be a leaky gauge. Ernest sent me a Wiha gauge and it hasn’t leaked a bit. It’s also right with my tank gauge. The old one was 30 Bar off.
While I was in there I pulled the regulator out , cleaned and replaced all o-rings.
The gun is shooting great. Just shot my best group today. I was testing different velocities with Heavy MK II and settled on 882 fps+/- and for the last target I switched to Heavy MK I. Got my best group ever with 5 shots into 1/4″ at 50 yards. Yes if I was was reading this I wouldn’t believe it either, and I might never get that again.
Can you guess which one is the MK I ???
Cricket is really earning her keep….maybe she’s jealous of the Impact and bumping things up a notch??? Maybe…..The Impact has its work cut out.
Just glad to have fixed the leak! Now onto the trigger/o-ring mod…….
Thanks,
Sounds good and I said I’d check this and I did…a lot of o-ring lube leaking out of the rear hole closest to the breech. Guess that indicates rear cap O-ring.
Gonna try to start it tonight and see what I can see.
K
Where would you check for leaks there with the silicon oil? I’m thinking that the “blow hole” indicates a leak at the front end cap but wherebouts for the gauge?
I’ll try to tear things down tonight or tomorrow and then report back.
Thanks again!
KP
On the front AT cap the possible point of leak could be :
The large high pressure O-ring, leak out of its indicator hole.
The gauge O-ring, you could submerge the front of the AT in water to check, install fill probe to check the fill valve at the same time.
The check valve/fill O-ring, install the fill probe into the fill port and fill port end with soapy water.
~ Greg
On the scratched O-ring groove I’d try and use a piece of twine with a little polishing compound on it.
Hold the twine into the groove a pull hard and spin; it should help smooth out the scratch a bit.
When installing all O-rings keep them from twisting when coming to rest in the groove.
Turn the end caps slowly will also help to prevent the o-rings from getting /cutting/scuffing/damage.
On the front end cap o-ring and reg high pressure side you could try and use a harder O-ring like V75 Viton instead of Buna – N70.
I use Molykote -55 on all O-ring except the 2 small o-ring on the inside of the reg I use supper lube.
Supper lube on the reg Belleville washer light coat, don’t use too much.
Try to keep all Belleville Spring Washers in the same order when rebuilding the reg.
Use disposable paper towels only (like Bounty brand) dampened with alcohol place on a cleaning rod and clean out the inside of the air tube; rags often hold to much dust and lint.
The hardest one to figure out is the reg leak indicator hole (I use a little spit on these holes to check if it’s leaking), if its leaks from there it could be any one of the 4 O-rings on the reg that is bad/leaking., but It’s usually that smallest one on the inside.
After shooting top fill the gun back to 220 bar will help the new O-ring installation hold its seat better.
Hope that all helps yea ………… a leak should be able to be fixed !
~ Greg
Thanks for the replies. I wanted to get into the gauge area but like you said …a special socket is needed. Ernest was out of them when I ordered o-rings.
Where would you check for leaks there with the silicon oil? I’m thinking that the “blow hole” indicates a leak at the front end cap but wherebouts for the gauge?
I’ll try to tear things down tonight or tomorrow and then report back.
Thanks again!
KP
Drums,
Did you also check for leakage around the air gauge area? The seal behind the air gauge on the Crickets seems to be made of plastic instead of rubber, which becomes brittle over time and starts cracking. This is what happened to mine. Check that area if the seal has given up. A good way of checking for leakage is by immersing the air tube in water and see if it gives off air bubbles. However, I like to just pour a slight amount of silicone oil instead to avoid any possibility of corrosion on the metal parts in the future. If it is indeed the seal behind the air gauge that is causing the issue, you’re going to need a special tool to unscrew the gauge since the gap between it and the filler cap is too narrow to use a conventional socket. I had to buy a socket and have its outer diameter grounded down to size by my local tool-grinding company.
Inspect the inside airtube surface, I have scratches inside mine and am waiting for a new airtube under warranty.
Sometimes the reg oring need to “seat” under high pressure. Fill to 220-250 bar and leave under night.
There was an O-ring mod you could do too, different material but GKU can probably help you a lot more than me
Hey Greg,
Nice photos…also smart move sharpening the bolt.
Well I still have leak problems….maybe you have an idea?
At first I replaced the valve end cap O-Ring. Got it back together and it still leaked. I managed to scratch the o-ring groove :angrymob: and sent a picture of it to Ernest …he thought that it didn’t look too bad. Thinking about putting an extremely small touch of epoxy in the scratch then smoothing out to just fill the scratch help to seal that area?
So after the first time in and still leaking, I went back in and totally tore it down and removed the regulator with the PVC pipe.
What I’ve done:
1. Replaced front end cap o-ring
2. Replaced the two OD o-rings on the regulator assembly.
3. Replaced the OD rear cap (valve end) o-ring…first time in.
All from the O-ring kit from Ernest….and using Molykote -55.
Now, I am seeing molykote coming out of the front indicator hole and also from one of the two rear indicator holes (don’t have the gun in front of me but will check which one and get back to you).
The gun seems to be leaking a bit slower but after 4-5 days pressure drops down to 100 bar and then stops and holds.
Velocities are now somewhat erratic when compared to before. I did set it to about 853 ave. using JSB Exact Heavies 33.9 and the ES dropped significantly. I think now at ES=9 and SD=4. Before I was getting SD: 2 and even 0.
I’m going to tear it down again and do a thorough check of the tube and all surfaces, looking for scoring. Inspect the new O-Rings. I rubbed my finger over the threads at the ends of the tube and all felt smooth.
Would you suggest a different grease…like silicone vs Molykote? Should I use a rag to clean out the inside of the air tube? Trying to think of anything….
Would appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks, KP
Nice work KP !!! :8:
But I need to give credit to Ernest for the barrel pull idea.
I like to get credit where credit is deserved ……
If you going to change out all your O-ring you don’t need to pull the reg out just remove the front cap and push the reg out with a PVC pipe.
After which I made a puller with a 4mm x 0.70 thread pitch hex bolt, the longs one I found and placed a self locking nut on it.
I also sharpen the end to use it to align the barrel as well easy to turn with my fingers, the factory one needs a hex wrench to remove and use.
Also for the Mutant owners it’s the same thread too …….. …
~ Greg
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Yeah, just about a year. Reasons….
1. After tearing into and replacing o-rings soooo many times I got frustrated and put it down. I could see the leak coming out the front of the gun and thought it was the check valve o-ring, or the gauge o-ring. Many o-ring changes, polishing, different lubes,….nadda
2. It was a slow leak so I thought I can just live with this and continue to shoot it.
3. My .25 cal Impact came in so I spent several months with that.
I talked with Ernest and sent him a video of the leak in a bowl of water and he suggested sending me a gauge to try out. Well I got her installed and the gauge reading was now almost exact with my tank reading and after sitting a couple of days…..not a drop of air leaked out. Guess I’m the lucky first…..that’s why I didn’t consider the gauge….couldn’t be!….right?
I’m thinking that the Cricket likes the MK I’s and the Impact ST barrel likes the MK II’s I have both so when the Impact comes back from Ernest
tomorrow I’ll do some tests with the two Heavies.
Ernest is such a helpful guy. He has really helped me a lot.
KP