Level 7 valve slow recharge?

[Hook]

One of my Level 7 valves will shoot fine if I don't shoot more than once or twice per second. Anything faster and velocity drops, which leads me to believe I am having slow recharge issues.

I also noticed a very slight leak down the barrel. It's barely noticeable, but it's there.

Suggestions?

[Spider-TW]

I would start with the assumption that those are two different problems. You can get away with a lot of leaking if all else is good.

For the recharge, I usually suspect something between the trigger and the top of the on/off. Verify the sear/trigger gap and rail bushing. It might respond to loosening the field strip screw, but really you should be able to snug up the stock arrangement pretty well as long as nothing is warped.

That's given;
1) Bottle has good amount of pressure.
2) Valve reg has been good.
3) Bolt is returning all the way.

When did it start with that behavior?

[Hook]

I think I found out what the problem was. I recently changed the standard carbon fiber AGD frame for a 32 Degrees chrome frame, which didn't have any internals. So I had to remove the trigger and safety from the CF frame and install them in the 32 Degrees frame.

Once installed, I noticed that the safety no longer worked, because it was pushing against the trigger pin and was pushing the whole sear assembly upwards inside the rail. I rectified this by filing down some excess material behind the trigger to allow the safety button to be pressed, while leaving some room for the trigger pin to move inside the frame. Now the trigger pin extends a bit more forward and the safety now works.

Incidentally, this has also fixed my slow recharge issue, which was probably caused by inappropriate trigger pin length.

Now to find the culprit of that leak...

[Ando]

Getting the safety working is great but i'm not buying it being your issue with the slow recharge. Could be your on/off for your tank. Some will push the pin on the tank too far and actually close off the airflow a bit. Mess with the on/off and see if it comes back.

As for the leak. Air the marker, fire and hold the trigger down for about 10 seconds. If you start hearing it leak you might just need to clean out the on/off cavity with a q-tip and a bit of oil or change out one or both orings

If it's steady then you probably have a messed up PT oring. If the oring is fine, swap out the main bolt spring. If it persists then you might need to go down in your PT spacer. .220 spacer is the money spacer for most setups.

You can grind your current spacer down with a dremil if you don't have any extra spacers. Take a little bit off at a time and make sure you face the grinded side of the spacer towards the PT tip.

EDIT:

Last thing. Make sure you have a gap behind the trigger and sear arm. If it's touching, the sear might not be fully engaged on the bolt face and allowing it to move forward enough to cause your leak.

[Hook]

Alright. I aired the marker, and held the trigger for a few seconds. The leak stops when I do that. The leak comes back as soon as I release the trigger.

I've also checked the trigger pin. Before sanding down the trigger, there was no gap whatsoever. Now there's a 1/16" gap.

[Spider-TW]

.220 spacer is the money spacer for most setups.

On a side note in the opposite direction, have you ever tried using Level 10 shims with a PT spacer when you wanted it longer? I tinkered with it, but didn't have a problem initially and didn't drive it to failure.

[athomas]

Alright. I aired the marker, and held the trigger for a few seconds. The leak stops when I do that. The leak comes back as soon as I release the trigger.

That sounds like you need a shorter powertube spacer than the one you are using.

[Hook]

I don't have any spare spacers. It doesn't look like Tunamart or the AGD store has them, I can only find O-ring kits. What now?

[athomas]

Shorten the spacer you have now. Place a piece of sandpaper on a flat surface and rub one end of the spacer on it. Only sand one end. If you take too much off, you can add a level 10 shim to make it longer.

[Hook]

I sanded the spacer bit by bit and the leak is still there. The spacer is now at .197 according to my digital caliper. Originally it was a .225

The leak is much less noticeable, but still there.

[Spider-TW]

Did you check your bolt stem and make sure it is clean and smooth?

Stranger things show up in used mags.

[CaptainWhappin]

I had that same exact leak happen for me too, except it was huge. I just bought a new bolt spring, which stopped it. I also have that recharge problem too...