HELP!!! Vulcan crapped out!!
Hey guys,
My .25 Vulcan died on me and I need to get it reincarnated… I’ve been shooting my crickets lately playing around with night vision stuff with them. My Vulcan is my go-to gun for sparrows/starlings in the back yard/chicken pen… Was home this weekend messing around and a couple starlings were hanging out on the martin boxes so I get the trusty Vulcan out, cock it, take dead aim and …CLINK… the hammer falls but nothing happens. I look at the gauge and it is sitting on zero!!! So I’m thinkin’ OBVIOUSLY I have a leak somewhere… I hooked up my tank to it to refill and the air just blows right through… As a matter of fact, I got lucky in that the gun was on my tripod in my office and when I turned on the gas, it actually shot the pellet that was in the barrel out.. DUH!!! Scared the crap out of me, then I thought what a dumb ass I was… Anyway, It appears that something is stuck in the wide open position so that the tank will not fill.
What the heck do I do? I have the world’s captured supply of spare o-rings for it as I bought a bulk supply from a local house here in the Houston area. I don’t want to just start taking it apart until I try to find out what happened. The gun has been sitting on my table in my office pressurized continuously since I got it from Tony. Any ideas as to what you think may have caused this full tank dump and no re-fill?
Thx,
Charlie
All Replies
Thanks Sir Hoot…
This was a no charge deal as he told me.. I asked him how much and he gave me the new gauge and stem.
I will report back as to my success/failures…
:hoot:
Just remember he puts his invoices on the outside of the box, under the address sheet. I didn’t know that and ended up owing him $80 for months without knowing it.
Hoot:
Hey gang, Evgeny came through just like you guys suggested and what I have come to believe. I got a package in the mail this morning with the new gauge he promised AND a new replacement valve stem!!! Ye Haw!! Gonna put my baby back together this evening. :8: :8:
I will report back as to my success/failures…
My .25 Vulcan is from the first Gen. and I have never had anything break or come loose on it . The only problem was letting my
brother borrow it and he miss cycled and got too many pellets stuck in the barrel , sent action and barrel to Tony and he sent
the clogged barrel to Evgeny for replacement . Now have basically a new gun with only 16 pellets through it that Tony test fired
to see how well it was shooting with new barrel . Tonys’ target was at 30 yards and the gun shot like a laser . When the .25 Mutant
Shorty comes to market I will be selling my Vulcan which I’m not going to shoot again so someone is going to get a really nice gun .
So in the mean while I’ll just be shooting my .25 Talon SS which I will also sell after I get my .25 Shorty .
FROM : THE BIRDMAN
:hoot:
In my dealings with Evgeny…he usually had a rapid response, unless he was traveling, which he seems to do a lot of from time to time. So don’t sweat a slow response, the guy has a lot going on.
As for delivery, it will take at least two weeks to get your package from Europe. With the holidays here (they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Europe???) it may take a few days more.
Not to worry. Evgeny will come through for you…our problems have to coincide with his timeframe, not ours.
Hoot:
Yea kris, I took it all apart and everything seems to function properly with respect to spring, valve action, etc. I run nitrogen so it was very clean on the inside. Once I find out the outcome of my communication with Evgeny, I may try redressing the stem. I still have not heard anything from him, nor have I contacted Tony yet. Wanted to see if Evgeny sent a stem replacement with the new gauge… have not gotten a shipment yet, but It’s not been a week yet, and with our holidays this week, likely would be next week before anything shows up.
Sure appreciate all the feedback and ideas… got my gears turning anyhow as to a solution.
Thanks,
Charlie
well the talons seal is more tapered picture is here http://www.airgunspares.com/store/product/12006/Gunpower-Stealth-Seal-Kit/
i would just spin it and use some 3m yellow or so lapping paper, mines surface is really flat and mirror finish.
who knows i guess you dont want to put taper on it, try to make the mark disappear. try not to remove too much material.
the return spring is ok right? not too loose or knackered. are you able to push in the valve stem all the way in, and it springs back (of course with no air in the tube), i guess you have to remove the AT to test this.
Yea kris, my stem looks just like that new one, except it has a ring where the seat landed, and under a bit of magnification, you can see where the seating surface has been cut apparently by the escaping gas. I run dry nitrogen so moisture should not have been an issue. The gun was just inactive sitting on my shooting bench indoors in climate controlled environment. I’m not sure if it leaked slowly down or if it let go suddenly at some point after I had last shot it.
When you redressed the stem, did you wrap the razor blade around the stem sort of and pull it into the seat while spinning it in the drill? Did you chuck the metal stem in the drill or the spring guide boss on the opposite end of the stem?
a brand new looks like this
it is very beefy, not like other makes! So should really last long. your regulator may be set very high maybe it is just too much hammering.
and no it used to be other makes what suffer more with breakages, but who knows these days you cant trust what you read on the internet anymore
:rofl:
maybe they should start to make it from PEEK. or like in this thread with metal
http://www.talonairgun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&p=371172#p371172
when i am looking at the cricket one, there is a return spring guide on the adjuster. vulcan does not have it there.
regarding the shape, now i have not looked at my original one, so not sure if my spare is a rawling or is it supposed to be like that plain flat 90deg surfaces
kris,
The valve seat appears to be just fine. I cleaned it and put it under some magnification and as best as I can see, it is good. I am in the pressure equipment business and have reworked valves stems myself. I no longer have access to a lathe, otherwise I’d recut the valve stem too. Your idea of putting the stem in a drill to spin it is a good one. I may play with that too, but since the gun is still under warranty, I first wanted to see if Evgeny would send me a replacement stem. If not, I first will contact Tony for warranty repair at Evgeny’s suggestion…
Gertrude,
I hadn’t heard of this before on the Vulcans, and I understand the Vulcan design is very similar to the Cricket, and the Cricket has a very long and successful market run. I have a couple of them myself and have experienced no such failures with them. This Vulcan was not being used at the time the failure occurred. It had been “on the shelf” for a month or more and I just picked it up one afternoon to shoot a starling off my bird house as the Vulcan has been my go-to gun for that shot. I just cocked it, aimed, squeezed the shot off and got no report… Looked at the gauge and it was at zero…
Hello All,
My name is Ron and this is my first post on the Talon Tunes Forums.
(Thanks Tony for the quick membership conformation)
some of you here may know me as “Tri-5-ron” or more recently as “Gertrude” from the GTA.
Yesterday I was out at one of my shooting permissions with a few of my buddies. One of the guys has a .25 Vulcan that has experienced this same problem with the gun dumping all of the air. This is the Second time this has happened.
The first time was shortly after the gun was purchased, with less than 1000 shots fired. At that time, the gun was sent to a recommended airgunsmith for repair, and has recently been returned.
The gun has had less than 1000 more shots fired, and the same thing happened again yesterday.
When we were shooting the gun this time, it was tethered at 3000 psi. The gun was performing flawlessly, and is AMAZINGLY accurate… easily picking off chicken eggs at 75-100+ yds.
After a few clips fired, (and many scrambled eggs 😉 ), the gun suddenly dumped all the air.
Again, to reiterate, this was with the gun tethered at 3000 psi, so it is not a matter of shooting down the pressure too far.
We tried to refill the gun slowly, using a JoeB tank, equipped with Joe’s “Slow fill valve”, and it just leaks immediately out through the barrel / breech. We then tried to refill it with the gun cocked, same thing happened.
We then tried it a second time,… with the gun cocked,… and a very quick hit of air from my SCBA tank that has a much faster (standard) fill valve. (not a JoeB “Slow fill” valve). This was in the interest that maybe the valve was stuck and a quicker hit of air might un-stick it.
well as you have already figured out, that did not do any better, and still,… the air immediately leaks out of the barrel/breech.
SOoooo,… Today, I started digging around on the web to see what I could learn, and to see if this might be a “Common Problem” (?) with these guns, and that is how I found this thread of current discussion.
OK, so I am certainly not a recognized “airgunsmith”, and I admittedly have never “been inside” of a Vulcan, (yet 😉 ), So I AM a newbie to the Vulcan’s “specifics”,…but I am no noob to tinkering, repairing, modifying, building several other types of AG’s. I am often called upon when one of my buddies has any sort of problem with their guns. (lucky me, right ? :confusedn: :winkn: :biggrinn: ), LOL.
So now in my digging for info I see that this problem seems to be fairly common and I am wondering if anyone has determined the “Root Cause” of this issue, with the Vulcan guns.
Is it a matter of inferior material being used in the valve poppet ? … or might it be a design issue ?
has anyone come up with a better or improved valve poppet, or method of modification to correct the problem ?
I seem to have read that there are some issues with the poppet becoming damaged and causing the leak, and I have also read where some have said that their valve stem has even cracked or broken ? (is that correct ?)
i’d like any experienced info or input from those who have anything valuable to share or give me some insight on this.
I have not yet opened up the gun myself, and wanted to bounce it off of you guys first.
Also, I see where you mention Earnest and another guy as having much experience and outstanding customer service, and would appreciate any contact info or links that you might be able to provide. we’d like to give this repair a go ourselves this time, rather than sending it off and incurring even more cost and lost time.
BTW, the aforementioned airgunsmith, who had previously worked on the gun, was NOT Earnest and I’m sure he is great from all that you guys have said,… we would just like to give it a go ourselves, to better understand the internal workings of the Vulcan.
any and all help is greatly appreciated, and Thanks in advance.
(maybe I will have to start hanging around this forum too :8: ), to learn more from you who are more experienced on these particular guns.
Cheers, and have a great day,
Ron
back in my talon days, i managed to reshape the valve seal by spinning it in drill and using a titanium blade found in the normal disposable shaving razor blades. you have to break the plastic/handle and head to get the blade out. dont cut yourself :rofl:
i have got a spare valve stem may have a look how it looks in the area where it supposed to seal. is the seat OK? And the other surface it makes contact with?
GS, I’ve thought about that too… IF my attempt to get the stem directly from Evgeny fails I will either send it to Tony as Evgeny suggested for warranty repair, or send it to Earnest to repair AND tune… :8:
Fortunately I am not without something to shoot… Because of my PCP addiction, I have others to shoot… Just that the Vulcan was my go-to gun for starlings on my bird boxes… I hadn’t been shooting it much since I got my ATN night vision scope and mounted it on my .25 Cricket… That thing is fun to shoot… but I gotta get the Vulcan back up and runnin’ soon. Winter sparrows and starlings are starting to show back up at my back yard… 😉
Saltwaterslk, I bet Uncle Ernest could fix you right up.
jk
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Well guys, unless I’m doing something wrong, the new valve did not solve my leak issues. I installed the new stem and tightened the retainer down to where it was before I disassembled it. Before installation, I cleaned the valve body inside and out, lubed it up, then rolled the stem around in my fingers with lube. Before installing the air tube back in the frame, I connected it to my tank and the air just blew right through the valve. I tightened it down more, no change. I am now at a loss as to what to do other than return it for repair… :sadn: :sadn:
More feedback would be greatly appreciated…
Got the gun from Tony, and he has assured me that he would work with me to get it back up and running again. My first inclination is to send it to him, but I’m also thinking of sending it to Earnest and have him work it over end to end…
Y’all’s thoughts?? Should I get it “fixed” before I get the Earnest tune done?
Thx,
Charlie