Adventures With Tippmann C3!

[Cdn_Cuda]

And here's the valve in assembled form with the clip shown above.



And the final little connecting for the combustion chamber is this gas line from thegas line is this little connector with a o-ring. Not threading at all, just held in place by the o-ring and the groove in the clamshell:

So this is oriented to the front of the gun as you can see the main pump rod and the fuel pump rod. This fitting is the end of the steal braided gas line.

[Killerito]

Been Mia for a bit. Looks like you got it handled. Definitely take care with the ignition assembly all round minus the battery harness it’s a pain to try and get pets for. Last I checked tipan parts actually had most stuff in stock but a bit pricy.

I love that everyone’s first reaction is of shit it runs propane it’s gunna explode

[Cdn_Cuda]

Good to see you back on the board. Technically exploding is how it goes work, just in a controlled fashion. Although according to Xemon these can zap you pretty good.

[Killerito]

Yah the ignition is pretty strong haha. I had one that was grounded weird and would zap every trigger pull. But hey at least it let you know it was working

[XEMON]

Yep!
I think one of my mistake is the lubricant ... if it insulate (most greases do) is will have poor conductivity inside ...

[Cdn_Cuda]

Moving on to the barrel and pump assembly now. The barrel appears to be very long, but as the ball enters very close to the back of the gun the barrel length is not bad at all. The top tube being the barrel with wire detent, the bottom piece acting as a guide rod for the pump handle. It attaches to the body via a Tippmann pushpin. (not shown). There is also the bold and the PITA o-ring shown.



So the bolt itself has 3 o-rings and a large opening to handle the gas to propel the paintball ball. There is a hole towards the back of the bolt (bottom in the picture) for the pump rod to sit.

There is also a flat spot on the bolt which is likely meant as a cut-out for the wire detent?! Taking a wild guess here.



So here I have the bolt oriented how it would be int he barrel, making sure the rear hole for the pump rod sits in the channel in the barrel.

And finally, here is the bolt in the barrel without the pump rod attached so you can see the proper positioning. Note the pump rod needs to run outside of the clamshell. There's little piece to tuck the rod inside the clamshell. I forgot this and nothing would go back together properly. In the photo below the bolt is in its rear-most position, so the opening in the bold does not match the opening of the barrel until the bolt is slid back forward. As shown this would be where the ball would chamber (before it rolls out).

[Cdn_Cuda]

So here is the barrel, bolt and PITA o-ring properly installed. Do this by lifting the combustion chamber out of the clamshell, aline the barrel and the o-ring and lower it down as a single piece. Otherwise the damn o-ring will move. You can also see the hole in the bolt for the pump rod. If the bolt turned during this process use a pick to turn it to the correct position.



Finally, make sure the barrel is properly aligned. In the clamshell frame there is a little solid tab that the barrel needs to sit in. It's hard to see in my photo, but if the barrel does not sit properly in this tab the clamshell will not go together properly and your o-ring will pop out again.



And here is the final position of the pump rod once the clamshell is put back together. It's a little tricky aligning the pump rod into the bolt, but you'll get it.

[Cdn_Cuda]

With the back of the gun all dealt with we can move to the front again and reassemble the pump handle. The pump handle is held together with 3 screws that look to be the same fine screws as used in the cyclone feeders bottom plate. As you can see in the photo there's a recess where the silver main pump rod connects. The connect for the pump rod itself is only on the other section of the pump handle.


Here's the inside of the other half of the pump handle. The pump rod just sits loosely between the two pump stops.



This now shows the entire pump assembly in its final form. The butt end of the pump rod is what actually contacts the copper gas valve to add the propane into the ignition chamber, so you must pull the pump handle back hard enough to depress the spring or there won't be any/enough combustable fuel.

[Cdn_Cuda]

Finally, a quick look at the annoying bottom line assembly. It uses the typical square nuts sitting in a plastic cutout method which I dislike. It took a little jiggling of the circuit boards and things to get the clamshell in the proper place and these nuts were a pain as they kept moving.



This little bracket then screws into these nuts, and the main "ASA" screws into this bracket:



And in the end the bottom line looks like this when properly assembled:



And there you have it. All back to together!

[Cdn_Cuda]

So this takes us through the entire process of the Tippmann C3.

I did get a chance to shoot it for the first time since the rebuild. Took a shot or two to prime the fuel, but once it was firing it worked well. No missed balls, ignition every time. Barrel is large so paint rolls out easy. Pump stroke feels a lot better than when I first got it, is I'm quite happy. I'll get a video of it in action and maybe even try to get a night shot as rumour has it you can see a little bit of flame at night.

[Cdn_Cuda]

Quick update. Went to do a shooting video, first few rounds shot no problem, the the hopper stopped feeding. Change hoppers a couple times, gravity, Pinocchio and finally Halo, but still no feeding. With a little pressure I could pop a ball into the chamber but it was tight.

After some exploratory poking it seems like my barrel has rotated slightly, so the holes don’t align properly. So the balls jam in the bottom of the feedneck where the barrel is misaligned. On the plus side is it was cycling without issue, just no balls. Barrel must have been sitting just off centre and slowly shifted to the point it is at. Should be an easy fix as long as that PITA o-ring plays nice.

[Chuck E Ducky]

Any way to add a detent or freak bore to prevent roll outs?

[Cdn_Cuda]

No way to Freak Bore. The barrel extends behind the breach and the bolt is in the barrel itself. Barrel is also a composite material. I would think the best method for a detent would be a piece of painters tape opposite the detent. Or some nail polish might work as well.

[Cdn_Cuda]

Re-aligned the barrel and tested with a reball. Balls now properly drop into the barrel and I’ve tightened things up so hopefully the barrel doesn’t twist again. I’ll be careful not to grab or carry the gun by the barrel as well.

[Cdn_Cuda]

Yes, and it was aligned as I had no problem shooting earlier. Not sure if I picked the gun up by the barrel and it twisted or what, because balls would no long feed due to misalignment.

[Killerito]

Barrel movement is an issue I. Then I had 2 other that even 100 shots or so would need to be core sampled to push the barrel back into alignment. Lol

[XEMON]

I managed to ajust teh barrel in place without taking the gun apart, just by loosening some of the top screws.

[Cdn_Cuda]

And here's a shooting video. Velocity seems a little low, so after the video I increased it. Seems to shoot better after that.

[CGPro856]

I picked up a mint looking C3 but the sparker isn't working. any ideas of where to find a replacement or how to repair the one i have. The board and cap seem to be good but the coil only produces a very tiny spark if you touch the output leads together. no where near strong enough to jump the spark plug gap.

[XEMON]

You may have to make a new coil from scratch ...

[CGPro856@aol.com]

That’s above my skill set. Any recommendations as to where I can find someone to make one for me?

[XEMON]

Reverse engineering is extremely time consuming and a lot of trial and error ...
I could make a replacement but we're looking at 6+month project before I get the first working prototypes and lots of money on components and prototype PCB. Unfortunately there is no way to even think about breaking even on this endeavour ...

[Trbo323]

Somehow I never realized these had electronics in them.

2 questions, going I didn't just miss these in your breakdown

1) how is velocity governed? Like what method is used? Limiting the air? Gas? Flow restriction?

2) are any of the o rings special materials?

Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk

[XEMON]

1) the velocity is controlled by changing the ratio of propane & air int he combustion chamber.
2) I'm not sure about special material, but there are special/proprietary orings ... And you need to be careful about the lubricant you use otherwise it's not gonna fire ...