Edjimicate me on the Excalibur

[lew]

AKA markers were always at the periphery of my interest back in the day, with my gaze occasionally settling on the Excalibur for a brief time now and then. As a prospective buyer in 2020, what should I look out for? Are there any good online reference materials? What's the availability of spare parts like?

It will have to learn to live with my Shockers and Impulses, but I do have Sidewinders on my Cockers to make it feel more welcome.

[Tracker]

you said edjucate,, but it looks like your aware they are closed bolt. so well gloss over that part (and yes, this is going to be like a primer for any future people with the same question that might find it)

the used excal market has really dried up. so its very much a sellers market, seems like most people that have them, forgot they have them.. anyways,

the A style, which was 2003 and below, they can be blind, or have eyes, these will also have a wire detent, which has a very long cover, and they aren't symmetrical

Boards
if they have a very low serial number, it could have a green nelson board in it (capped at 13 bps), or it could have any other board in it. Was boards are blue, Pandora Boards are black, i think there are some pandora boards floating about with custom firmware flashed to them called Rmod.. tadao boards are white or black, some of the white baords are viking only, some are both (Tadao still reflashes boards)
the ONLY tadao board that will work without any issues in an excal is a white board, the black ebisu board works for some people and not for others, its a capacitor issue on the board, not retaining enough energy to fire both noids fully, the scifi guy makes boards now as well, but those are small batches that sell out fast right now

Noids
noids can either be MAC, humphrey, or mac converted to humphrey, you will want to avoid the MAC noids if you can, they can be temperamental, and they arent common to find with even bare leads anymore, let alone with the proper molex, excals and vikings that use MAC noids can be modified to use Humphrey noids instead, but it requires milling, and as far as im aware, AKA/DC would be the only place capable of doing it, and the converted ones still can be a headache because of sealing issues. so if you cant tell, you'll want to avoid MAC noids if you can, most shooting examples will have a very high likelihood of having humphrey noids.

LPR's
there are internal and external LPR's, theres nothing inherently wrong with either, the internal LPR is a great design, they moved to an external when they decided to shorten the body for the B and wanted to free up volume lost in the cut. there are 2 different internals you can have in the external LPR, the SCM1, or the SCM 3, you find out by removing the adjuster, spring, and piston and seeing how many holes are in the brass thing.. 4 holes is a 1, 6 holes is a 3. the 3 has better recharge and is less weird about adjustment (i remember hearing stories about the 1's needing to be "backed out" to the pressure or else it wouldn't set correctly, but ive never seen this myself first hand) it could also have a STD lpr, (which was a company founded by the late dan voils, Aaron K of AKA, and Jared from DC (now owner of AKA)) there was a small batch of these made, these would be the most desirable LPR's out there

B style is anything made after 2003, these are a bit shorter, all came milled for eyes (though not always installed) and they eye covers are symmetrical, and the same on each side, these are also easily distinguished by the bolt tube on top overhanging the back of the body by about 1/4 inch

everything i said about the A bodies about boards and LPR's, applies, (they are all interchangeable) these all came with Humphrey noids, and these all came with external LPR's (an internal will work fine though)

onward to other parts

Vollys
AKA guns can also have a volumiser, they arent required, they are for looks more than anything , like if you want something sticking out of both tubes up front as opposed to just 1, BUT, they do serve MORE of a purpose on an Excal than a Viking. there are 2 types, the AKA one uses an allen key on the front and looks like the LPR, and the DC one uses the 3 prong tool, and usually has a licensing label lased on the side, there are 4 different stem lengths, be aware of this if you plan on buying one after the fact

Feednecks
AKA is its own thread its course, and not prone to pulling out like an angel, there a few companies that made necks (including CCM), you can still get modern "empire style" necks installed with the help of nummech

Milling
there about about 25+ different milling versions for the excal out there, milling ID is a whole separate topic i wont get into here

Spares
Are hard to come by. when AKA was sold, a clearing house came through and took a lot of things for scrap, so, unfortunatley, there arent a lot of NEW parts to be had out there.. and certain things like hammer and ram cartridges do not come up often. they are all serviceable if you have the right tools.. and there ARE a few people out there to are willing to take them on for work.

Maintenance
a few drops of AKA oil or the proper ATF fluid (which DOT rating escapes me at the moment) in the asa, and shoot it through the system, resist any and all urges to take it apart unless you have to. the primary O-rings that hold it all tight are 015 Urethane 70 durometer, use anything else and you might regret it, the tolerances are so tight i used a buena on a valve one time and i had to bang it out with a wooden dowel..cause it got stuck on the way in! also these o-rings are 20 cents each.. they used to be a dollar.. and youll ruin at least a couple taking it apart.
DONT TAKE IT APART UNLESS YOU HAVE TO

if i missed anything. ask away

[Axel]

This is the kind of wisdom we need imparted onto the new board :bowing emoji: :youknowtheoneimean:

[lew]

Tracker, bloody well awesome info there. Many thanks to you. I've got a lot of thinking to do, but it looks like a worthwhile marker to hunt down. Cheers!

[silverbullet669]

Good info here! Does this cover Vikings fairly well also or are those entirely different beasts?

[Tracker]

depends on what you mean.. yes and no.. the viking is an openbolt and uses a different type of cartridge, and body

but it is applicable on all the parts that were shared between versions, like the noids, the detents (and eye covers) the circut board, the HPR/LPR, you can still use a miteymax, but its 100% for looks ONLY on a vik, one of the tubes on a viking is all volume, adding a little bit more isnt gonna have much of an effect

[Cunha]

Just wait until he tells you where to buy the correct AKALMP o rings from mcmaster carr.

It is worth adding that both of these guns are among the very most reliable paintball guns ever manufacturered. They are of the highest quality and have minimal quirks.

The excal is more complex, and is unique being a double solenoid closed bolt situation so less people know how to adjust them after they take em apart and replace stuff. Besides that, they really are the most reliable guns ever made and need very little. The viking is simpler so is easier for people to understand and operate, but the guns are equal in terms of quality and reliability and are essentially unmatched.

The other most reliable guns (like an eclipse etek 5) are only equal because they are easier to service and easier to find parts for. 15 years after production (like the viking is) you would probably want to be fixing (replcing an O ring) on a viking, rather than a 15 year old etek.

[lew]

"unique being a double solenoid closed bolt situation"

Ahem, Shocker 4x4/Sport/Turbo.

[Cunha]

Yes, almost unique.

And unique in doing that and being efficient.

[lew]

No argument there. Thank the heavens for all day air.

[Cunha]

Gotta run co2 in a 68ci bottle like an OG

[lew]

Gotta run co2 in a 68ci bottle like an OG

You know it. Like a boss.

Were stores once willing to fill HPA tanks with CO2? I never knew anyone who did that. Cool idea, though.

[gabe]

Pretty sure they only did that on the old Shockers when they used a big old HPA bottle with a CO2 on/off valve directly into a bottomline maxflow. They would fill them up with some CO2 and then top off to 3k psi with nitrogen to get more shots out of a tank.

Or at least that's how I've heard it being done. Not sure how you would get CO2 though a fill nipple.

[nuclear zombie]

Pretty sure they only did that on the old Shockers when they used a big old HPA bottle with a CO2 on/off valve directly into a bottomline maxflow. They would fill them up with some CO2 and then top off to 3k psi with nitrogen to get more shots out of a tank.

Or at least that's how I've heard it being done. Not sure how you would get CO2 though a fill nipple.

I did that with my V-Sport Shocker back in the day, we didn't use the HPA reg but replaced it with a CO2 valve. The small field at the time didn't have a compressor so we filled from tanks, 2000psi fills were the norm. Which equated to a hopper and a pod from the shocker I had.

[Tracker]

yup, any bottle can be a CO2 bottle.. co2 tanks are stressed to 1800 psi, and HPA is stressed to 3k or 4500 respectively, highly unlikely that you'll ever over pressurize a HPA tank by filling it with CO2..

now the cryogenic liquid causing issues down the lines with expansion and contraction.... that might be a good reason why fiber wrapped CO2 never took off