Another "new" owner

[Jordan]

Ok, I got the carrier and hammer mods done and I'm trying to manually cycle the ram/carrier assy to function check and am running into an issue I could use help with...

Out of the gun: Everything locks up great and cycles as expected.
In the gun, with no hammer spring: Everything locks up great and cycles as expected
In the gun, with hammer spring: The hammer hook won't latch onto the carrier unless I manually press the hook fwd just a hair. The ram/carrier is set at 2.23 and I've tried as long as 2.28" with no change

Any thoughts?

I'm thinking either the hammer spring is a hair too long, or the center post you put into the carrier needs to be trimmed a smidgen.

Also - you'll need to keep the cupseal tight against the valve to simulate it being under pressure. Otherwise the hammer won't have anything to maintain it's position when the carrier is driven into it's latched position.

No burrs on the hammer or carrier? The latch spring is intact? Seen them break in the middle and not put enough tension on the latch.

[Breakdown]

Breakdown is it air'd up when you are doing your manual check? The hammer might be depressing the valve stem.

I'm thinking either the hammer spring is a hair too long, or the center post you put into the carrier needs to be trimmed a smidgen.

Also - you'll need to keep the cupseal tight against the valve to simulate it being under pressure. Otherwise the hammer won't have anything to maintain it's position when the carrier is driven into it's latched position.

No burrs on the hammer or carrier? The latch spring is intact? Seen them break in the middle and not put enough tension on the latch.

Looks like you guys were spot-on, thank you! I needed to push against the valve pin.

I had tried airing up and it was leaking BAD down the barrel because the hammer was resting on the valve pin.... so I unhooked and was trying to manually "cock" it to relieve the valve pressure so I could redo my leak tests!

[Jordan]

Looks like you guys were spot-on, thank you! I needed to push against the valve pin.

I had tried airing up and it was leaking BAD down the barrel because the hammer was resting on the valve pin.... so I unhooked and was trying to manually "cock" it to relieve the valve pressure so I could redo my leak tests!

Occasionally you'll run into that - cycle the gun a few times (pull the trigger) when airing up to get the valve to seal up.

[TKcustoms]

Breakdown you could air it up w/o the ram installed to the body to help isolate that leak.

[Breakdown]

So much other stuff going on ... but I finally got to play with this again. The gun cycles, woohoo! And it holes pressure... for a moment at least. Either after airing up OR after shooting, the gun seals for about 5secs and then there is a small but audible "pop" and air starts leaking down the breach. Shooting will cause it to seal up again and stop leaking for ~5secs and then the little pop and more leaking. The valve seal was in decent shape even before I lapped it on some 1200grit to get the surface smooth and level.

[Myrkul]

That kinda sounds like really aggressive reg creep.

[TKcustoms]

I had a similar thing happen but im not sure it applies to your case. In my case the cup seal didn't make a good seal, and the ram would eventually push open the valve.

[Jordan]

Sounds like your carrier spacing is off. The 2.230 is the baseline - I've gone as short as 2.18, it all depends on the individual gun.

I suspect the ram is set slightly too "long" and it's pushing the cupseal open.

[Breakdown]

BUHAHAHAHAHAHA! It works!

I shortened the carrier spacing to 2.215, and magically... no leaks! however, it also wasn't getting any air out of the valve. So, disassemble and start poking... the threaded post I added in the striker face had backed out, despite being locktite'd in place. Clean, reassemble and after a bit of testing and fiddling ended up at 2.220 carrier spacing.

I of course don't have a chrono (BUT, I think I'll build one out of an ESP32 and some IR sender/receivers) and am completely out of air now... so not much more fiddling to do at the moment. But I scored an almost equally archaic VL EyeForce hopper and made a fancy new speedfeed lid for it.

[Breakdown]

Here's how she sits currently. The 9v compartment is temporary until I take power from the hopper. I likely won't get much more done for awhile since we're closing on a new house... But then I've got an idea for a new grip frame and HPR/LPR setup

[Breakdown]

I finally got around to putting a buck converter in the hopper, so it can provide 9v to the marker now. More importantly though, I took off the stock feedneck and machined it down for a clamp. Now I just have to put on my big boy pants and grind off those silly 3/8 dovetails!