Giving old Pro-Am a new lease on life

[nerdcore]

The revival of Serial Number 0369.

The Pro-Am when it arrived.



More of a restoration progress log. A lot of my questions have been addressed by older posts in this sub, but I may have more.
Not much rhyme or reason for photo order, but i'll edit as i go.

First issue that came up was the valve assembly would not budge. I gave it some reasonable force with different wooden dowels (and wooden dowel-like items), but too worried about the power tube to continue. Soaked it in dishsoap & hot water overnight, still wouldn't budge. Sprayed what could only be described as knock-off WD40 i found at work, into the body cavities, and let that soak in overnight.

Body, underside - no risk of losing a valve stop, yay?



Body, front - looks like a crime scene in there. Body, rear - never thought i'd be glad to see a c-clip.



And on the third day...
This is after i disassembled for cleaning. Going to disassemble it again for more pictures.

[nerdcore]

The Valve Saga.

Valve in the clamp, pushing the plungers in to compress the spring so that first c-clip can come out easily.



And the MVP itself, Browne & Sharpe 754-D parallel clamp. Give 'em the clamps!





Valve assembly and tools. The bat is one of my dowels, used to be a souvenir ballpoint pen.
There are 2 valve seats, front and rear, which is not indicated in diagrams available online. Later valves didn't need the second seat, i guess.



2/2/26 EDIT: View inside the hollow valve body. Cavities for the c-clips near the ends, otherwise it's uniform all the way through.



1/31/26: Plunger seals so flat, circles drawn with sharpie would be thicker. Automatic transmission fluid bath begins.





2/2/26: The ATF bath didn't seem to make a noticeable difference (soaked Saturday afternoon to Monday morning).
Do i need to use conventional instead of synthetic? Soak it longer?
Or are they too far gone? Maybe just need to finish the rebuild and see what happens.

[Kit352]

I was able to pull the pins out and then the black seal and flip it on mine.p

[nerdcore]

Kit352 i may try that at some point. Luckily, i was able to air up & cycle with no leaks (as of a few nights ago), so counting that as a win.

[nerdcore]

Body Internals.

All the guts outside the body, reunited. No luck sourcing a new drive spring, but maybe this one is still fine.
2/2/26 EDIT: Measured my drive spring at 5.9", a curiously in-between size from what I was expecting. Doesn't look trimmed.



Power tube face had a nick and dent in the area that looks a bit thicker (not the best photo of it).
Kissed it with a belt sander so it's smooth again. The rear rod isn't beat up at all.



Picked up a couple Starrfire bolts (aluminum & delrin). Bought out of curiosity, not sure i'll need them. Stock bolt on the right.
Their length is interesting - same distance from linkage hole to face, but more on the backend. Anyone know why, and if that's going to be a problem?




Some linkage arm shenanigans.

One side looks sanded/worn down. Rear sight's set screw was overtightened, maybe? Or is this normal? It looks so cleanly smoothened.
EDIT: FlightMedic938 said this is sometimes done to prevent interference from the barrel shroud.

Are linkage arms from other Tippmanns the same size?
EDIT: Chappy says the Pro-Ams & Pro-Lites share linkage arms, but Carbine arms are shorter.
C26G measured his Pro-Lite linkage arm at 4.38". Measured mine at 4.4".



The other end.

[nerdcore]

Frame and Shroud.

Trigger parts gotta come out. The sear is not connected to, or contacting, any spring. But i can see a spring in there. Probably rusted to pieces.
Also, any advice about running a new macroline through the frame? I read somewhere that the valve port is 1/8 NPT. I'll try the existing line, but eventually it'll need replacing.



2/2/26: The roll pins are definitely going to be a problem. Tried just tapping matching-size allen wrenches with a mallet, but they didn't budge.

In the mean time, I soaked the foregrip in evapo-rust for 30 min. Neither the black coating nor what i'm assuming is aluminum cared at all. The sling ring needs a longer soak, though, because it's still rusty. I may need a larger jug of the stuff so I can soak the whole thing (i only have a 1 quart tub right now).

2/3/26: Found a can of CRC 3-36 at work, going to see if this is enough to loosen the roll pins before tapping again. Otherwise, i'll need to take a trip to the hardware store for legit penetrating oil, and maybe proper punch pins.

2/4/26: Let the CRC 3-36 soak overnight. Off to some hardware store for pin punchs and liquid wrench or something.

2/5/26: PIN-PUUUNCH! Much to the dismay of my family (the living room coffee table is currently my work bench), the oil soak loosened up the rusty bits, so I was able to loudly knock the pins out. Turns out the sear spring is fine, it just popped off the sear's hook. Which is great, because the spare I bought is not the same.



2/13/26: Some chrome flaked off the trigger & sear, and i'm able to flake off a bit more with my fingernail/dental pick (where it's bubbling up and there's some corrosion underneath). Would like to remove it completely, but the methods based on whichever type of chrome this is are a bit out of my comfort zone. Not sure what to do, aside from just cleaning them up best I can and leaving as-is.

Parts under extra lighting:



Same parts without the extra lighting (trying to highlight where chrome begins & ends):

[Calvin]

"looks like a crime scene" lololol....that sounds familiar!

I purchased one of those blue aluminum starfire bolts for a 68 Carbine in the mid 90s. The marker wouldnt cycle with it installed as it bound up somewhere either against the tube or the body. Curious to see if it might have been meant for a Pro Lite power tube instead.

Love the pics!

[Chappy]

I don’t think the aftermarket bolts will work without changing to the later model drive train. I think that changed late in the pro am and early in the pro lite. So most pro ms cam with the short bolt and only later models or warranty repairs got the long bolt. It’s been a long while tho I might be misremembering
oh andnlinkage arms should all be the same between pro and and prolites but carbs and procarbs are shorter.

I heart pro ams good luck and thanks for sharing

[snaparen]

early pro-ams up to about 10k had this drive train. I was updated shortly before or when the pro-lite came out. If pro-ams were sent back to factory or any warranty work the valve trains were updated to the short one that we are all familiar with today.
Chappy this subject feels deja vu

[FlightMedic938]

Looking good!

The Starfire bolts are longer on the back because the stock bolts and some aftermarket bolts would leave a gap between the powertube and bolt where air could escape when fired.

The linkage arm is filed down because they can sometimes get caught by the barrel shroud when fired causing lots of problems. Previous owner had some skills

[nerdcore]

I forgot all about the shroud, somehow. I'll be sure to flip the l'arm around on re-assembly (i have it backwards in the "guts" photo). Thank you!

[C26G]

I have a Blue Aluminum Venturi Bolt like that one - it gets stuck in the barrel on my Pro Lites and 68 Carbines. Even after sanding/polishing. I don't have any Pro Ams so I'm probably clueless with anything else you're dealing with. Pro Lite Drive Springs are 7 Inches length, but I've used the 4 Inch with no issues usually (probably less velocity with 4 Inch spring?)
Linkage Arm on my Pro Lites are approximately 4.38 Inches Length

[Kit352]

One word if advice on the valve if you haven't opened it yet. Make sure you have a replacement c clip on hand before you work on it. They are so fragile now that most break when removing. Tippman still sells replacements which is a good thing.
Drive springs can be had still. I got to remember where I found them though. It wasnt horrible to get a replacement when I needed it last year.

[Kit352]

I don't think so. Mine use spring clips pa31a. I think the c clip version is pa-32. I don't think they are compatible with each other. I think the one you linked is for a new style.

[nerdcore]

Got it, thank you. After disassembly #2 (pics soon to follow), the clips still seem in good shape. I may take some measurements, in case I need to source aftermarket ones. When you got replacements, did you go through PaintballSolutions.com?

[Kit352]

I ordered directly from tippman. They still stock a lot of old parts.
Every once in a while an entire spare parts kit pops up eBay. They are worth getting if you can snag one.

[C26G]

I wonder if that valve would fit in the Pro Lite?

[FlightMedic938]

It is strange that it has 2 valve seats. I don’t own a Pro Am but I got a very low serial # Lite that uses the same valve and it has the internally machined seat on the hammer side. With the hammer stem already being short that thick seat is going to decrease it even more which isn’t a good thing IMO. If you have a spare 98, Pro Carbine, or A5 style seat it may be worth it to try and see if it’ll work since it’s much thinner. You’ll want the o ring visible when looking at the valve with it installed. The problem though is that you’ll need a new valve spring since the cup seal will be moved further away inside the valve. I bet a .75 spring used in the CVX valves will work, definitely a 1”, both are much stiffer than the Pro AM/Lite valve spring though

[nerdcore]

The valve body is basically a hollow tube. There's nothing between the rear seat and blue sky but the rear c-clip.



How far out should the rear plunger stick out? I could measure it.

This is the only Tippmann marker i've got. Well, a friend of mine may still have his A5, i could ask. He doesn't play anymore, so he may have sold it.

[FlightMedic938]

nerdcore I’m sure it’s ok. I’m just talking from a performance perspective. I think it’s really cool how things evolved in these Pro series markers and how seemingly subtle changes have such a big impact.

That valve is probably pretty rare and with it being such a low serial # I definitely wouldn’t make any permanent modifications to it. Not saying you would, I’m just thinking out loud lol. If you have any problems reaching playable velocity or getting it to recock I have a bunch of seats and springs from various Tippmann valves. If you need anything shoot me a DM and I’ll mail you some stuff for free bro 🙂. I have 2 spare valve stems that are missing the cup seals. I could mill those for you and send them too. I still haven’t figured out how to remove the seals safely and replacements are non existent so I don’t think I need them .

[nerdcore]

FlightMedic938 thanks man, appreciate that. I am indeed trying to keep this as factory as possible. I sent a message to Tippmann like Kit352 suggested, to see what they have laying around. I also emailed TippmannParts.com, and they already replied everything they have is listed on the site.

[FlightMedic938]

You can get a 98C, Pro Carbine, or A5 drive spring to work but you’ll need to add an extension to the end of the spring in the hammer channel. I posted pics of how I did it in my Pro Lite thread. You’ll definitely need a 68 or Pro Carbine end cap and a spring guide too. You could probably drill out the spring channel in the end cap instead but I never tried that I’m not sure there is enough meat. Could work though. Could not lol.

I had my Lite cycling great using a really stiff 98C drive spring so it’s definitely doable.

[nerdcore]

I'll check it out, thanks

[nerdcore]

Anyone have experience dipping the shroud and frame in evapo-rust? Or if i need to? Really, the only parts that need it should probably come off first (sling rings, trigger components, all the retaining pins). Also, do these pins just tap out? And does it matter which side i need to tap?

[Calvin]

I use evaporust on all my rusted screws. Works great. My only qualm with soaking the foregrip and grip is what kind of metal is it? My guess is Tippmann used some exotic moon metal blend consisting of old aluminum cans and scrapped plumbing fixtures. I think the evaporust is meant to react with iron oxide. Perhaps you could brush some on to a hidden area and see how it reacts over the next day.

[nerdcore]

Update: dabbed evapo-rust in a couple spots on the shroud (either end of the tension pin holes, the pin that holds the body latch). Left overnight. No effect to the black coating. I think the shroud itself is aluminum.

Let the whole shroud soak in the 1 quart tub for 30 min (as much as would fit, which is right up to the feedneck). Took some of the rust off the sling clip. Still no effect on the black coating.

[nerdcore]

Question about roll pin alternatives:

IF i am able to knock these pins out of the shroud & frame, is there an alternative that won't be a headache in the future?