Cricket Wouldn’t Fire
I’d been seeing some erratic velocities lately shooting the Cricket cold (50ish) degrees compared to room temp (70ish). I shot a few through the chrony Tuesday and I had lost 130fps :shock:. I had marked my HSA and knew it hadn’t changed. For the day I ended up just turning the hammer spring up a little to gain some of my lost velocity back. It was too sick and it was too cold to shoot outside anyway so I didn’t worry too much about it. Yesterday, I thought I’d shoot a few to see what the velocities were doing now. The gun temp was 49 degrees. I put 220bar in it, chambered a pellet, pulled the trigger and…………nothing, just the sound of the hammer hitting the valve. :suprisedn: Pulled the magazine out and tried it several more times. My guess is that it’s valve locked due to hp air on the low press side. I’m thinking one of the O-rings has given up the ghost. I checked my weep holes on the air tube and there was nothing leaking. I called Ernest and he thought the regulator was leaking air through to the low side so it wouldn’t be detected coming out any of the weep holes. I’ve got the air tube pulled apart now and in the process of changing all the O-rings in the air tube and the two in the regulator. I ran into a little problem though that I’ll get resolved today. I was pulling the regulator with the end of a aluminum cleaning rod and the damn threads (8/32) broke off in the regulator. Today I’ll get it drilled out and reassembled and see what happens. Thank goodness Ernest has these YouTube tutorial vids out.
jk
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I’ll never claim to be an expert at anything! The first time, I took the air tube all the way out. The next couple of times just pulled the breech, valve, spacer and regulator. So easy, even a Zonk could do it!! It’s definitely got me confused.
I took the regulator back to it original measurements plus 1/2 turn CW on the third attempt yesterday, filled it to 155bar and it shot a nice string like it was regulating but the velocities were to low.
796 796 783 786 787 784 791 784 784(130bar) 788 783 786 792 789 791 789 781 787 785 781(113 bar)784 782 779 789 778 784 786 781(105bar)784 780 783 775(100bar) 781 778 776 777 772 773(93bar).
This is when I took it to it factory measurement , fill to 220 and no fire, lowered airtube pressure to 180 and it fired 638 686 702 701, so it looked here like it was sending un-regulated pressure to the low side and I was going to have a curve again. It still seems like it will shoot regulated with the regulator restricted or with the regulator at it normal position but at a lower fill…Sure seems like it has to be the regulator. I’ll tinker with it a little today.
GRSMKrrrrrr
I was recently experiencing trouble with the reg in my carbine too, but didn’t have the problem of valve lock. Crazy velocity changes (817, 783, 769, 866, 906, 812, 812, 811, 922, 894, 899, 908, 819, 897). Tried replacing inner and outer reg seals, delrin seat looked fine, no other apparent visual problems. Don’t have a reg tester. WWAG sent a new reg, I dropped it in, and all’s back to normal. My dumb moment was stripping out the tiny bleed screw. Luckily I didn’t need to drill it out and the neighborhood hardware store keeps the set screws in stock. I can also say after this experience I could probably strip this puppy down blindfolded. 😆
Damn Crack Smacker sounds like your going to be an expert tearing this gun apart. Hopefully you’ll see something that isn’t right this time.
I changed the 2×4 mm also. The itty bitty one.
Jk
jk
Not the outer 2 large O-rings if that is what you meant, there is 1 small one deep inside of the reg that controls and separates the regulated and non regulated pressure. It’s this small O-ring that sits over the regulator shaft and is held in place with a retainer. When it goes bad/leaks it’s a straight feed and bypasses the reg altogether with unregulated air. Because from what you have posted it seems that your gun is not being regulated anymore, it seems also to have mimicked a slow but steady failure of it. Noting to do with cleaning your barrel just a coincidence I think and or your logical thinking.
ATB ~ GKU
Thanks GKU, sorry about the head ache. I already inspected and change the inner and outer O-rings. The reg was clean and as far as know it looked good, but they are a very precise instrument. I might pull it back out tomorrow and ease it back open a little. I’m seeing velocity curves like the regulator is hung open but not fully. Like the time I filled it to 130bar. My velocities were 719,778,806,815,828,837,853,865,895,908,915,926,937,934,942,944,945,939,928,921 ending pressure was 103b. Something very screwy goin on here! Again, the only time I was able to fill to 200+ and have it fire was if I had the regulator cut back. Here is was velocities in the high 700’s and low 800’s.
jk
I just can’t seem to make beans in what you are saying but that’s just me. I’m trying to recover from a hangover, Happy New Year to my trigger happy Airgun Buds !
If you are planning to go in again I would consider checking, cleaning, re-lubing, readjusting the pressure on and or replacing the main regulator O-ring inside of. This often falls being probably the most demanding stress out O-ring in the gun.
I believe that Donny was right in saying that your reg is bad ?
~ GKU
I’ve done a lot of tweaking today, and about all I have to show for it is that I can now pull the regulator and make an adjustment in about 5 minutes, 10 if you include blowing down and refilling. Even though I didn’t find anything obviously wrong with the regulator it seems like the problem is there. From what I’m seeing if I fill to 200-220 and the regulator is at its orginal position it will not fire untill I bleed off some of the pressure, kinda like if there is enough air tube pressure it bleeds through to the low pressure side and creates a valve lock. I bled it down from 200-210 where it wouldn’t fire to around 120 and I was seeing velocities of 950-955. Having said that I did fill to 150 once and 200 once but I had the regulator close off 1/2 a turn CW. I tried one more time going back to the setting it was on when I pulled the regulator from the gun and filling to 220 bar, again no fire. I bled the pressure off toe 180 and it would fire but only at 638 and climbing. Unless someone has some good ideas or have seen this before I going to send it to Ernest for a tune.
jk
Now your thinking…..
The gun didn’t drink a sip! Got the Dutchman out and re-assembled regulator, airtube and gun. It shot ok but was only making a little over 800. I measured the regulator before I took it apart and put it back together the same. I guess I’ll pull the regulator and open it up a little.
Crack Smacker, was Red Stag involved??
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The Saga continues,
This morning I pulled the regulator back out and took it apart. I do know it’s not the larger O-rings on the body of the reg. I would have air coming out the weep holes if that were the case. So this only leaves the little 2×4 that seals HP from Lp internally. I was thinking maybe it wasn’t tight enough and was allowing a little HP air through so I snug it up a little more than what it was.
So not to waiste air I only filled it to. 1200bar, first shot nothing, cocked it again fired, 759 850 885 897 917 916 936 943 940 934 924
Filled to 150, no fire increased HSA 2rds still no fire. Bled the pressure down to 130, fired 674
Now I’m wondering if maybe, just maybe the regulator adjuster screw is just slightly too far off the internal seat to EVER seal even though I got it back to factory specs. This would allow whatever pressure you have on the high side to be on the low side and hammer does not have enough energy to fire the valve. Maybe after so many shots the seat material wears just enough to not seal. Well, here I go back to the kitchen counter and tear that baby down again. Keep your fingers crossed….
jk