Retro Valve still leaking, and driving me nuts!

[krafty]

OK, at Country Club last night my retro valve was STILL leaking and messing with me. The leak sounds like it's in the on/off assy., but I couldn't be sure. If I let it sit charged up for more than a minute, the first shot 'bloops' out about 5 feet. The leak happens both with the trigger depressed and released, but I've noticed that if I put even the slightest pressure on the trigger, the leak intensifies.

Before I headed down yesterday I had completely replaced all the soft parts with brand new AGD o-rings, but with about 1000 shots through it, still have the same problem.

Anyone have any ideas? I'm about ready to call the tech line and have it worked on in-house.

[a_malfunction]

Is everything oiled properly?

[Cha0tic]

well, make sure you have about 800-850psi going into your gun.

[MNMINIMAG]

More oil! Put two drops in the on off and five or six in your hose.

[krafty]

All nicely oiled, running 850 into the valve.

It sounds strange, but even stranger is the fact that almost the exact thing happened to my minimag when I first got it. It finally took a complete replacement of the entire on/off assy. to fix (including the top, pin, bottom, and all the o-rings).

Gonna give Jon a call this afternoon and see if he has any ideas.

[Drizit]

unless it's one of the hard parts, then the only thing I can think of is one of the o-rings in the on/off bottom. I know the first time I replaced all my o-rings I forgot about them.

[Shaft]

I had Retro problems at Country Club too. Bad bolt stick and leaking when I held the trigger in. Tom Vale replaced the PT Spacer, PT Tip and the orings on the on/off. It ran fine for the rest of the night, but now the leak is back. I also have some odd wear on the PT Tip.
Brand new valve too. Bummer.

[krafty]

Yeah, mine leaked right out of the box as well...

[BlackVCG]

Some things to try:

With the gun gassed up and leaking, take off the barrel and take a wooden dowel and press it against the face of the bolt. (I'm a assuming it's an AGD bolt) Press in as a far as you can on the bolt and see if you can get it to stop leaking. If it doesn't, try pulling and holding the trigger to release the air in the chamber and seal it off. With the trigger held back, push back on the bolt all the way and hold it there. Then release the trigger and observe what it does.

If it continues to leak, then the problem is not related to the powertube, provided the PT o-ring is in good condition and the bolt doesn't have some machining defect on the plunger rod.

The next thing to try is pull out the reg. valve pin and oil/replace the two o-rings on the end of the pin. Clean out the hole in the valve that the reg. valve pin goes in with a q-tip.

I'm thinking it's a PT problem, but if it leaks with the trigger held back, that makes me think it's a reg. valve pin problem. Try these things and report back.

[Shaft]

I was doing that the other night. I would push onto the bolt (AGD Delrin) and pull the trigger. It would not leak while holding the trigger back as long as I held the bolt in place.
This suggests the need to go back to a shorter spacer?

[BlackVCG]

What spacer size do you have right now?

[Shaft]

Tom Vale put it in. I was having issues with bolt stick. The PT Tube had strange wear on it, which may be because it came loose. That was replaced with the longer spacer. It was a .225".


I also noticed that the new PT tip is worn on one side again as well as some nasty gouging on the delrin bolt. I'm going to try putting the .220" spacer back in and see how it goes. No air to check results right now.

[BlackVCG]

Yes, put the .220 spacer back in. I've noticed with most Retro Valves, they need .215" or .220" spacers. Always make sure you tighten the PT tip with something like a nickel.

[krafty]

I'm hoping to sit down with the retro valve tonight and go through it. I'll give you a report asap.

[Shaft]

I went to a .215 spacer. Hopefully I won't have any bolt stick problems. It doesn't seem to leak yet.

This valve is a touchy one.