Alley Cat Questions

[glaman5266]

So I acquired an Alley Cat this past weekend. I've briefly looked at the manual & several threads in this subforum (including the HPA tuning thread) and have a couple questions:

1: For velocity & recock tuning with HPA: is this something that you just start at the bottom & work your way up per the manual? Should I assume the settings would be different than the "3-and-1" outlined in the manual? What are your approximate settings for running a Cat with HPA? Just trying to get an idea of what to expect after I rebuild it.

2: Regarding co2 use: I saw a picture of a Cat with a double-bottle setup. In this case, does the Cat just pull from both sources? Or could I throw an empty 3.5oz on the front for a volume chamber & run my full one off the back? I don't know what the gas routing looks like in one of these yet & I've never run double bottles on anything before.

3: Anything I need to be careful with when rebuilding it? I'm pretty careful with teardowns as it is, but are there any parts that I really need to watch what I do with?

I realize I'll probably figure some of this out by tearing it apart, but any input from you guys would be helpful & appreciated.

[Toestr]

You'll need something for volume at the VASA to use HPA. I followed the manual and it gave me a good starting point. If you have issues with the detent being too weak you can stretch out the spring underneath (also take out the mainspring and cock the bolt back for storage).

[glaman5266]

Good to know, but why exactly should the spring be pulled? I don’t know much about these.

[Toestr]

Taking the mainspring out just preserves the spring so it's not being stored cocked back (or compressed at all). I do the same for Tippmanns.

[glaman5266]

I see. Thanks. 👍

[BrickHaus]

Myrkul has a great write up on modifications for the Cats. Start with that.

Heres a linky to it. Its a few posts down.

https://www.mcarterbrown.com/forum/paintball-news-aa/the-armory/icd/186726-cat-modernization#post373475

I was able to get my puma working on hpa by simply opening the air transfer hole in the vasa, AND the trigger tray up to the valve. It still didnt necessarily like small paint.


I have also ran across some ancient pages that were still active that covered tuning cats. Let me see if I can re find them.

Edit. They are honestly really cool, and imo hard to break. The valve is the same as a tiberius t15 valve. The record, and velocity screws are the same even.

[glaman5266]

Huh. I thought the T15 was a Mag-like spooler. Shows how much I know. Now I REALLY wanna tear it apart & see what’s inside.
And thanks for that second link. I’ll look at it when I get some time.

[William the Third]

glaman5266 up until recently, I thought the same as you, that the T15 was a Mag-like blow forward spool. Sort of like the T8/9, and TPX/TiPX/X7 Phenom/etc. Someone started bringing one out to the field this year, and I had to work on it a few times. They really are just a mag-fed ICD cat.

[wthomas333]

I am not at all familiar with the T15, anyone know how similar the T15 valve is to the the ICD valve? I am wondering if the valve stem assembly is compatible? The T15 has a trimmed down valve stem that might be more friendly for HPA use if the size is right.

https://www.shopcousins.com/tiberius-t15-valve-pin-complete.html

[glaman5266]

Is the bolt cap supposed to come apart? Can the spring be removed from it? The spring tensioner in the bolt cap doesn’t seem to engage with the spring at all & I want to fix that & maybe play with different springs if I can find some. It shoots well, just not over 260fps (usually 245-255fps). Tested with co2 run vertically. Other than that I’m pretty happy with how it shoots.