Standard Cricket Blew All The Air Out The Barrel
I have a .22 Standard Cricket Skeleton with about 6000 shots on it. I replaced the plastic/metal valve stem with the all metal valve stem maybe 4000 shots ago. I just shot it a few magazines and it emptied the air tube out the barrel on one shot. I won’t take it apart until after dark (scooter riding to do) tonight. I suspect the valve stem again (and have a few spares) which are a piece of cake to replace – especially since it is out of air. Any other thoughts? :geekn: Lucky I just peed before that decompression. 😆
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Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
I think the way we tune these guns for efficiency actually maximizes hammer impact if we want a higher velocity. On my 30 cal Edgun i reduced the spring tension and velocity to 875 fps w/o lowering the reg because stems were breaking early. Knock on wood over 2500 shots on original stem so far. It is only 75 fpe like this but maybe a tad less efficient. The hammer is much quieter.
SECoda – AoA even called me back! Wow!
GKU – I was wondering the same thing my hammer spring is adjusted in a bit more than feels comfortable. Might have to adjust the reg, the back the hammer spring out a tad.
Don
My 22 cal standard has some 12,000 shot with it’s original value stem, so far knock on wood.
My new Compact 177 cal about 8,000 on original value stem.
Wondering if the reg setting, hammer and value spring adjustment must have some effect on it’s longevity.
I tuned the 22 standard reg and value spring tension to end up with the OEM hammer spring being no more then halfway in at peck velocity.
~ GKU
Yes WWAG was out. A lot of other vendors carry Crickets and parts now thank goodness.
AOA actually answered a phone call?
I wonder if valve stems are a problem for the Crickets. Seems pretty frequent for a .22 cal.
I have had the EXACT same issue twice recently. I had a aluminum/delrin valve stem in the gun for two years ( a replacement for the original plastic one that came with the gun ), then 2 months ago it blew all the air out the barrel. I discovered the nylon seal on the aluminum valve stem was deformed, so I put in a spare I had. The spare just went tits-up two weeks ago, again blowing all the air out the barrel. I’ve been trying to get a couple of spares from WWAG but they were out the last time I had contact with Steve, and he hasn’t replied to my requests, so I went to the dark side…. AoA… and got one coming in the next few days. I hope this one also lasts longer than the last one!
Cheers,
Don
WAGG/Earnest
Hey SECoda,
That’s good to hear it worked and didn’t need to be resurfaced.
I’d need to get a few extra valve stems, minds has that one on the right.
Where did you get the wider one on the left from ?
~ Thanks ~ GKU
Bummer – reassembled with new stem and air still leaking out air port. 😯
Disassembled and nothing obvious is wrong except maybe a speck of dirt on the old valve seal face. I cleaned it and will crank up the spring tension on the valve stem and try again.
Update: Now holding air again in the air tube without the receiver mounted. I will let it sit at 2000 psi for a few hours. So I emptied it and remounted the receiver. Now it leaks air out the air port again as if the hammer is touching the valve stem. 😯 Maybe I was barking up the wrong tree.
Ok – after Earnest reminded me to cock the gun on an empty tank it is back in order. 😳
Well everything looked fine so I put it back together and tried to fill it. No joy on the air and blew right out the barrel. Sure glad the Cricket only takes moments to take apart. This time I took the valve assemble apart even though it appeared to be functioning properly and nothing had broke or unscrewed that was obvious. Well here is what it turned out to be. A valve stem delrin seal failure. The only thin non-metal part. 😛 It went somewhere between 3500 and 4000 shots with the velocity set right at 900 FPS.
On the new one you can see they widened the delrin and lengthened the stem to compensate. (Must have happened to the maker 😉 ) The one that failed was a free replacement for the plastic/metal one which has never broke yet btw.
Thanks guys – I nearly forgot about that thing unscrewing since the gun had been so happy.
I was reluctant to use Blue Loctite or PTFE tape because of the little pieces could dislodge and make it’s way onto the valve seat.
Some one also posted a lock nut, but it will take away a small amount of pre charge chamber volume.
I was thinking of taking the metal clip off of an old pen which is spring steel.
Straight cut it off on both ends a bit longer than the diameter and little bend it and release it flush up against the retainer into the thread.
~ GKU
I suspect unscrewed valve stem circle with holes. I put some white silicon tape on threads. Now is not possible to unscrew it. So check it out and let us know what was a problem.
WoW SECoda !
That must have been very loud indeed !
I think you are the first I heard of if it’s the all metal valve stem that has broken ?
I could be also that the Value Stem Retainer worked its way loose, but only If you’ve seen any strange inconstancies with the peak velocity before hand.
Usually if one tunes it to 1/4-1 turn after contact that it’s susceptible to unscrewing over time.
Just Pm Ernest about it he told me to, “lightly ding 1 thread with a center punch then back it out slowly if it grip that’s good”.
~ GKU
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It seems my 22 standard gives good chrony stats (SD) from the HS being 1/4 in to no more than about 1/2 way in from fully compressed.
Because of the fact that all Crickets (hammer, valve stem and regulator) spring tensions are somewhat different within each one.
So I tune backwards knowing this and set regulator and valve spring according to the HST setting that gives the best chrony stats.
So I set Hammer Spring first then Value Spring second and then set/adjust regulator to match last.
Backing out the HST and rechecking the targeted peck velocity with each tweak.
~ ATB ~ GKU