Level 10 leaking down barrel

[AaronM]

I picked up a level 10 bolt secondhand and I have everything but the shims that go in front of the carrier.

When I air it up it leaks down the barrel, but when I hold the trigger the leak stops. I replaced the power tube oring but it still happens.

Are the missing shims enough to cause a leak?

[nak81783]

Using the SAME carrier oring (#25 in diagram below), use the largest carrier (#26) that doesn't leak. The dots and lines on the carriers denote their size. The smaller ones will squeeze the oring on the bolt piston more.

Make sure you're tightening the field strip screw (#14) with a wrench. Misalignment will cause a leak. You don't have to put excessive torque on it, but it needs to be more than finger tight. You can typically hear the tone of the barrel leak change as you loosen and tighten the field strip screw as everything goes in and out of alignment.

In rare instances, the thin black oring (#27) on the outside of the carrier leaks.

The shims (#28) are only for circumstances when the bolt hits an obstruction but doesn't vent and reset. I've never needed to use them on the numerous Level 10s I've worked on over the years.

[AaronM]

It came with 5 carriers and I’ve only tried the two that fit on the bolt piston snugly. I’ll try the other three and report back!

[trashcollector]

I fought this problem the other day. No carrier or o-ring fixed it. Turns out the center post? of the bolt had backed out and there was no sealing surface for the o-ring to contact. A vice pressed it back into place and I was good to go.

[ClockworkSoldier]

Oh, interesting. I've been spending time fighting a leak in my Tac One's lvl 10 on and off since I started playing again, and haven't been able to diagnose it. I wonder if this might be my issue.

[AaronM]

Mine looks like the top one so that shouldn’t be the issue

[nak81783]

I fought this problem the other day. No carrier or o-ring fixed it. Turns out the center post? of the bolt had backed out and there was no sealing surface for the o-ring to contact. A vice pressed it back into place and I was good to go.

I had that happen on one of the first Level 10s I had when they first came out. AGD replaced the bolt for free. I can't recall if I ever heard of it happening to anyone else over the years.

[tunaman5]

Thats a defective bolt. Send it back to AGD

[Magageddon]

make sure to check the inner surface of the lvl10 carrier your using too, I've found plenty over the years that develop a wear groove on the lvl10 carrier and can cause leaks that way, if you compare a worn one to a new one, you can see the difference easily.

[tunaman5]

You mentioned powertube oring. There is no powertube oring used in L10. It is a plastic washer. Make sure you arent confusing the 2

[AaronM]

UPDATE:

The level 10 bolt I picked up came with 5 carriers: 00, 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2.5, none of which worked.

Every single one leaks down the barrel unless I hold the trigger down. I kept part #2 and #1 (the power tube o-ring and backing washer) the same on all of them which are brand new.

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I'm really scratching my head with this one.

[LukeAO]

After you went thru all the carriers, did you try another (or 2) orings?

[AaronM]

I didn't have any others from Agd. I tried some buna 90s in the same size to no avail. It fit, but the largest carrier was super snug and still leaked. I have one more idea I want to try but it’ll have to wait for now.

[nak81783]

Are you tightening the frame and field strip screws with a wrench? See my comments in my first post.

[AaronM]

Always

[nak81783]

Just to make sure, put the Level 7 back in to make sure the leak stops.

[AaronM]

Lvl 7 works perfectly.

Per AGD instruction, I need to finger the bolt tip (pause! lol) to see if the leak changes in any way. If that’s the case, a new oring is in order. I just have to work up the motivation to tear it apart again.

[AaronM]

It works!

My ADHD brain makes it hard to focus, especially when I have a million things going on, but I was able to quiet it down long enough to mess with the different carriers again lol. To reiterate, I only had one o-ring from AGD to play with and no matter which carrier I tried it would just keep leaking. That was until I came across these guys.

IMG_0982.jpg

These turd-colored fellas were included in one of my recent purchases and are the exact size I needed. They fit a bit more snug in the carriers, not so much that it's a problem. So, I went through the various carriers again in my classic mag. I wasn't having much success until I spotted I'd missed the 0.5 carrier. I suppose for some reason I thought it wouldn't work, but it did!

I just wish I'd come to that realization sooner.. 😅

It shoots great though it'd look a lot better with one of Doc's foregrips. Thanks for all the help and input! 👍

IMG_0981.jpg

[trashcollector]

Glad you got it working