Early Automag Troubles...HELP?

[jackbauer]

ditto on the oring kit. also if you have a lvl7, check the blue spacer in the power tube. i had that same problem and after doing everything you have, i just started replacing parts. i noticed that it was pretty beat up. i also got mine used. after changing that, it worked like a champ.

1- get a oring kit.
2- fix the leak problem
3-get a lvl10
4-get a xvalve---some come with lvl10
5-mow faces!!!!


Also, unless you have a awsome emag, you by no means are going to shot as fast as a angel. a bag of paint a game is alot for a mag. i would suggest pratice playing hopper ball and learn to pick your shots better than just spray-n-pray!!

[Aslan]

Thanks!

But also, make sure the thick disc seal between the 2 valve halves is in properly. If you're not sure if it's in properly, try flipping it around. Off the top of my head, I believe the wide side goes toward the back of the valve.

Check.

Not everyone is a fan of the L10. I'm not a huge fan. I use L7 FOAMIE bolt without problems or breaks. I've had NO breaks this season. Use good quality paint and a fast loader and you'll be fine. L10 will not prevent barrel breaks, which is where you will likely find paint breaks with cheap paint, anyway. Also, be careful about using a tight bore barrel....if you have several barrels, try matching the paint you are shooting to the barrel size.

I've never had a problem with barrel breaks. I just shot about 60 rounds through it and the only problem I had was that the paint was getting "caught up". It was low quality Core paint and it was sort of "sticky". When I put Firebalz in, I had no problem.

Your air efficiency will be better with paint in the gun. It seems really bad with dry-firing. The efficiency is not much different than you would have with a standard blow back. You really should, however, top off your tank between games (if using high pressure). You can run on CO2, as well, but would suggest a good expansion chamber and an Anti-siphon on the CO2 tank.

I want to stay away from CO2 if I can. If I have to fill up my air tank between every game, I'll have to go back to using the blowbacks...it'll get too expensive unless it's a free air field.

You will love that mag! It will be the simplest and easiest paintball gun to maintain. You're not likely to have to rebuild that valve again for....hmmmm.....several years.

That's what distresses me the most about my current air troubles. I really love the Mag! I even like tinkering with it. I EVEN plan on getting a minimag as a back-up. But if this leak makes me empthy a tank after 2-3 games...I can't have that.

[Aslan]

thanks

Aslan, this faint leak you are speaking of, where exactly is it coming from? Have you chronoed it since you replaced the o-rings? If it is still leaking after replacing the reg piston oring at anything below 300, you need to change the piston. If you dont' and get a LVL X kit, your problem is going to get worse. How old is your mag?

Okay, here's the story with the leak...if I take the barrel off...the best place to hear it is if you put your ear up flush with the barrel opening. You can also sort of hear it if you put your ear up to the powerfeed...and sort of hear it if you put your ear up against the mainbody...in front of the valve.

Maybe I'll put of the level 10 upgrade until I sort this problem out completely. Today, I figured I was going through 4-5psi/shot...some dry firing, some actual paint shots.

Also, just to clarify...last night I replaced the reg piston assembly and every part that comes in the parts kit. The only o-ring I didn't replace was the o-ring that goes on the on-off bottom because the o-ring that was on there was slightly bigger than the power tube o-rings in the kit.

Any other ideas?

[Aslan]

sorry

How old is your mag?

Sorry...forgot to answer this one...it's fairly old. 68 automag classic...I bought it used so I would guess it is at least 3-4 years old...at least. If there's any way to find out for sure, let me know and I can look, take a pic, whatever.

[Aslan]

thanks

ditto on the oring kit. also if you have a lvl7, check the blue spacer in the power tube.

Replaced it last night with other parts in parts kit.

1- get a oring kit.
2- fix the leak problem
3-get a lvl10

Check.

4-get a xvalve---some come with lvl10
5-mow faces!!!!

I actually don't plan on getting the X-Valve...plan to get one when I decide to get my minimag. Other than weight, I've heard the X-Valve does nothing more than a Classic valve with Level 10 upgrade and I'm not concerned about weight with this gun presently.

Also, unless you have a awsome emag, you by no means are going to shot as fast as a angel. a bag of paint a game is alot for a mag. i would suggest pratice playing hopper ball and learn to pick your shots better than just spray-n-pray!!

Well, I see your point...but that's highly dependent on the game you're playing. I go through 20-420 rounds in an X-Ball game. I use less paint because the games are faster...I would say on average 120 rounds. Now, during woodsball...which I usually play...the range moves up to 200-750, probably an average of 270. It's not because I "spray and pray"...of matter of fact, that is rarely my game. I prefer camoflage and tactics. But, woodsball games usually last a bit longer than X-Ball games...15-20 minutes...maybe 25-65 players...so you usually go throu more paint...at least I do. Now speedball, that's a different ball of wax alltogether...the games are short but the guns are spraying 15-17bps. I've never played nor had the inclination to play that type of speedball.

[Aslan]

sorry again

"Aslan, this faint leak you are speaking of, where exactly is it coming from? Have you chronoed it since you replaced the o-rings?"

No, I don't have a chrono. I was planning on continuing to tinker with it, add the level 10, then take it to the paintball store tuesday and see if they'll take it in the back and tell me what it is shooting...if they have a chrono back there and aren't too busy polishing their cockers (and I didn't even mean for that to be an inuendo).

[Aslan]

Tunaman?

I tried to pm tunaman to ask if he could offer a suggestion...but apparently his pm mailbox is full. Darn. I guess we are on our own on this one.

[rb211]

OK. What you need is a power tube spacer kit. http://store.airgun.com/index.cfm?fu...&categoryID=18. This should fix you leak up front. Gas up your gun and hold the trigger back. If your leak stops, there you have it. Just keep trying different spacers until the leak stops.
You can go ahead with a LVL X kit, but you will have to tune it. Don't let that scare you, I had mine set up and working in about 20 minutes. It is a lot easier than some make it out to be. Just be patient with it. It's well worth it.

[Aslan]

Man O Man!!

OK. What you need is a power tube spacer kit. http://store.airgun.com/index.cfm?fu...&categoryID=18. This should fix you leak up front. Gas up your gun and hold the trigger back. If your leak stops, there you have it. Just keep trying different spacers until the leak stops.
You can go ahead with a LVL X kit, but you will have to tune it. Don't let that scare you, I had mine set up and working in about 20 minutes. It is a lot easier than some make it out to be. Just be patient with it. It's well worth it.

This is really starting to get tiresome!! I ordered the spacer kit...replaced the .220 with the .215. Still leaked....a little less though.

So, here's what I'm thinking...the ONLY o-ring I didnt' replace was the power tube tip O-ring. There wasn't one in the parts kit. So...now...I just ordered a power tube tip and 5-pack of power tube tip o-rings. The stupid thing is...once the leak stops, I'm going to replace these parts with the Level 10 upgrade. But I didn't want to just "assume" that the problem was the power tube tip o-ring and move onto the Level 10 without verifying it or if I had problems with the level 10 I'd immediately question if the valve was working right in the first place. Oh well...a waste of $18....it's worth the $18 to have this problem get resolved at this point.

If this doesn't work...I'm gonna have to send it in and use the star...I can't take the agravation anymore...it's giving me a brain tumor.

Hey...unrelated question...everytime I take my air tank off...it's REALLY hard to get off. It doesn't unscrew easily like a CO2 tank on a blowback. Once the pressure releaeses...then it's fine. Is there something I'm supposed to be doing to bleed the pressure or something? I mean, I have to use my legs to hold the air tank while I wrench on the gun to get it to unscrew...it's really tight. Also, if I take my valve off right away...it kinda "poofs" and usually blows the on/off parts out the bottom...which is annoying because they are little. HELPPP!!!!!

[paint magnet]

If that doesn't work, definately send it in to AGD.

Oh, and have then send back a copy of the Automag video with it when they ship it back to you. The video is free (normally you have to pay $5 for shipping but they'll usually toss it in free if they put it in with a package they are going to send you anyway). It's one of the most informative and comprehensive videos made on any gun, and is definately worth watching. It will help you understand you gun a whole lot better and help you prevent or deal with any future problems, should they occur.

Once you get it fixed, I doubt you'll have any trouble at all. You can't really blame AGD for the gun not working, since you got the gun used and don't know what's been done to it (not accusing you of blaming them, I'm just saying...).

By the way, the on/off assembly popping out can be prevented by pulling back and holding it as you slide the valve out.

*edit* Go ahead and get them to send you the video, even if you don't send in the gun. It's well worth the money and the time it takes to watch it. They should include an owner's manual for free as well if you ask (assuming it didn't come with one when you bought it).

[paint magnet]

Almost forgot--about the tank:

It shouldn't be any harder to take off than any other tank. Do you have this problem with all the tanks you use?

If so, I'm not sure what the problem is but you could probably fix it by getting an on/off ASA or a tank with an on/off. Smart Parts makes an adapter that you screw on to your tank to allow you to turn it off while it's still on the gun as well. You said that it unscrewed fine as long as the pressure bled off, so all you'd have to do is turn the air source off and fire the gun empty before unscrewing your tank.

Hope everything works out for you :)

[Aslan]

Nope

You can't really blame AGD for the gun not working, since you got the gun used and don't know what's been done to it (not accusing you of blaming them, I'm just saying...).

By the way, the on/off assembly popping out can be prevented by pulling back and holding it as you slide the valve out.

I don't blame them. This gun is pretty old and it looks like the previous owner probably ran it on CO2 and probably never replaced the o-rings as they were all fairly discolored.

What about the tank unscrewing problem? Anybody have any idea how to handle that?

[paint magnet]

I don't blame them. This gun is pretty old and it looks like the previous owner probably ran it on CO2 and probably never replaced the o-rings as they were all fairly discolored.

What about the tank unscrewing problem? Anybody have any idea how to handle that?

See my second post, an on/off ASA should solve your problem.

[KayleAGD]

OK, got tired of reading all the replies so forgive me for the repeats...

air up the gun.. see if the leak stops if it does the leak is before the on/off in the reg.

if it stops, release the trigger use your finger to push in on the bolt to make sure the power tube oring seals good, if it stops it is in the powertube, sear, or rail bushing

if not check on/off teflon orings they should be a little tight...

check the base if the power tube for cracks they will sound like a barrel leak..

try these


or find someone going to IAO and let me fix it for free..

Kayle

[Aslan]

OK, got tired of reading all the replies so forgive me for the repeats...

air up the gun.. see if the leak stops if it does the leak is before the on/off in the reg.

if it stops, release the trigger use your finger to push in on the bolt to make sure the power tube oring seals good, if it stops it is in the powertube, sear, or rail bushing

if not check on/off teflon orings they should be a little tight...

check the base if the power tube for cracks they will sound like a barrel leak..

try these


or find someone going to IAO and let me fix it for free..

Kayle

Well, gave that a try...still a faint leak. Interesting development...after replacing the powertube tip and a new o-ring...the tanks now screw on and off just fine! Still got that faint leak...but at least I don't have to wrestle the tank off with my knees.

The leak occurs as soon as the gun is aired up. Continues after firing it. Pushing on the bolt with my finger doesn't help. Just as a recap for new readers...the reg piston and power tube tip have been replaced as well as every o-ring (all of them) and a couple other parts that come in the parts kit. The leak is faint, best heard if you take the barrel off and put your ear right up against the opening...can also be heard if you put your ear against the mainbody near the valve or against the powerfeed opening.

Not sure what to do next...maybe I'll post a poll for advice on a few choices...I'm at about the end of my "marginal" technical abilities and don't feel like continueing to buy every replacement part in the AGD storeroom hoping to "get lucky".