Ferrets Buellers guide to relubing/tuning the Air arms Tx200 and prosport

[Ferrets Bueller]

I thought i would do a guide on the correct way to strip, and relube spring airguns. I don?t claim to be an expert on this subject but ive stripped and re-lubed a fair few springers now and with my own know how and other advice ive picked up I hope this guide will prove useful. Ive used an Air Arms Tx200hc .22 as my strip subject and will include any differences between the tx and prosport as and where needed, I will also amend for normal springers where needed.

Right to start with you will need the following tools:

Set of allen keys, various flat head screwdrivers, An adjustable wrench. A small pin punch (3mm) and hammer, 1000 grade wet and dry emery paper A good quality metal polish ie autosol, Wd40 or degreaser, gun oil, moly grease or in my case macari lubes, a soft towel and a few cloths, a roll of toilet paper and some small storage containers , oh and some rubber gloves.

Step one:



Remove your scope (it is possible to strip the tx and prosport without removing your scope but I would advice to remove it. Using a 3mm allen key remove the 2 front stock screws and rearmost trigger guard screw, they remove the forward trigger guard bolt using a 5mm allen key, put these bolt etc in your storage containers so as to not loose them and also any other small items that you don?t want to lose.
When all the 4 bolts have been removed carefully remove the action form the stock and place you stock in a safe place.

Prosport owners skip the blue section and go to the red section

TX200



Now you can see underneath the action and the under levers cir-clip that needs to be removed



Using 2 flat head screw drivers put one at the front of the clip and push the other side rear wards to push it off the bolt ie so it doesn?t spin when your pushing it off, be careful as the cir-clips can have a habit of flying into the air and into oblivion. Then gently release the cocking arm by carefully swinging it downwards until you can pull it free of the cocking shoe.



Tx owners skip the red section

Prosport

With the action removed from the stock you will see the allumium cocking lever and action. you will not need to cock the rifle ive done that for illustation purposes and because i didnt want to loose my zero removing the stock :wag tongue:



Further up the lever is another pin just like this one, that needs to be removed, it may come out just by pushing it with the 3mm punch or may need a gentle tap with your pin hammer, remove the pin and the lever will swing out and loose, now you will be able to gain access the the the bolt that connects the lever to the comp tube.



Undo this and remove the bolt and lever.



Now there is a bolt with a red cushioning washer remove this and then remove the rear trigger retaining bolt as described in the following section.

[Ferrets Bueller]

Now where onto the main bit, using your adjustable spanner, undo the trigger block retaining bolt by unscrewing it anti-clockwise.



As you get a few turns on it, it will get loose enough for you to turn by hand, put the barrel end down on you towel and using your left palm push downwards on the trigger block at the rear of the action, this will release the tension on the bolt allowing you to undo it with your fingers, don?t worry as the bolt completely unscrews there is hardly any preload on the block at all and it can be released slowly. Pull the trigger block out and place that and the bolt in your container.



Now tip the gun upside down and the spring/guide etc will slide out put all this to one side for now, and whislt pressing in the anti bear trap release ease the compression tube back wards till it stops, and remove the cocking shoe through the gap . And again put it in your container.



Now you can with draw the comp tube and then remove the piston and piston weight, that should slide out of the inside of the piston with some gentle tapping on your towel.

Piston weight


Whilst at this step you could add a v-mach or macarri tuning kit which replaces all the standard spring, piston washer and spring guide and top hat, fitting instructions are included with these kits.

Now is the time to degrease everything and if your gun is an AA rifle then you will notice how rubbish the factory lube actually is and is something AA need to address, its more like oil than grease. Using a litte wd40 or other dergreaser clean all metal parts and the inside of the empty action using a bit of dowel and cloth to remove any old grease. I also took this time on ricks older tx to polish up the outside of the comp tube to remove signs of slight corrosion using the autosol and a cloth I then fully degreased again to remove all traces of the autosol as this stuff wont do any metal to metal contact any good at all as its abrasive. On a newer AA gun this should not need doing. All the removed components of the rifle should now be spotlessly cleaned/degreased now.

Now remove the spring from the spring guide careful to not lose and of the preload washers, if fitted as not all tx?s or prosport have them, my tx has 1 and my prosport has 3.



Degrease the spring and guide and washers, then take your 1000 grade wet and dry apply a pea sized amount of autosol to it and rub it onto the wet and dry to spread it out a little, now holding you clean spring, end down, in a circlar motion on the wet and dry start to polish the spring ends until you have a mirror like finish on both ends, it may take a while but it worth doing, as when you cock the spring not only compresses it also twists in a torque like movement and this is also the same upon firing so this helps to smooth out the firing cycle.
We now need to lube the spring either using moly grease or Macarri heavy tar, using gloves apply a small amount of grease starting at the bottom of the sping and working up till you reach the top, (we are trying to achieve and even coat all over the spring but not having clumps of grease everywhere, the grease on the spring is only really there to stop the twang noise upon firing) when you have an even coating rub a small amount of grease in your palm, and run your hand up and down the spring to string a little grease in between the coils, put a small amount of moly grease (moly paste if using macarii) on the spring ends and replace the spring, washers and guide back together, I put a little grease between the washers and then put somewhere dust and hair free for the time being.

Now we come to the piston, we want the lightest lick of grease around the rear of the piston washer and I mean a very very tiny amount, . Its also worth sizing the piston washer as on the AA rifles they are a tight fit, a bit of wet and dry and some effort you want to take just enough off so that the piston falls in the compresion tube under its own weight, doing this to my rifle up'ed the power by 0.6 ftlbs and i had to reduce the power, you can do this either by removing preload washers or by removing a coil (or 2) and heating it red hot and comressing and finishing the spring again.



Then a decent coat of moly grease or paste on the delrin guides to the front and rear of the piston.

If your rifle hasn?t got delrin guides (ie its not an AA springer or laza/v-mach glide conversion) then the piston will have metal to metal contact on the compression tube, so a coating of moly grease is required all over the piston metal work, just a nice even coating will do the trick.



Insert the piston weight with the thicker end first into the piston and again place somewhere clean for now.

Now the compression tube, using either moly grease or macarri clear tar, put a light coating all over the tube. On non AA springer or non laza/v-mach glided guns the compression chamber is the action on the rifle and not a separate part as shown here, just degrease as said above and then lube the piston as above and upon refitting the piston to the compression chamber a generous amount of moly behind the piston in the comp tube is also required, not loads just a decent amount



Right now we can start to reassemble the gun, start by putting the piston back in the compression tube, ease it in gently making sure the piston weight is still in there, then put the comp tube back in to rifles action, now this next step can be a little tricky and is probably the hardest part of the whole gun strip and reassemble, just as the comp tube reaches the stop on the bear trap release you need to put the cocking shoe back in.



Making sure its the right way round , ridges to the bottom and the stepped recess for the cocking link to the trigger block end, move the comp tube around and from side to side till it pops into place you can then press the bear trap release and push the whole tube forward till it stops, now insert the whole spring assembly into the rear of the piston, and put the trigger block back into place and as upon disassembly push down on the block till the bolt holes line up and insert the bolt and tighten back up, just nip it up don?t over tighten.

Before this step you could also strip and polish your trigger for a smoother trigger operation and having done it myself its well worth spending 30 mins doing, the guide for doing this is here http://www.airarmsownersclub.com/vie...php?f=3&t=5186

Now apply a little moly grease or paste to the cocking shoe gap.



And re-insert the cocking arm the same as you removed it, swing it back into place and replace the bolt and circ-clip.



Prosport owners the re-fitting of the cocking system is the reversal of removing it, be careful to ensure all bolts are not cross threaded before tightening, a little thread lock is adviseable of the bolt that attaches to the compression tube as these are prone coming loose over time. Also worth noting is that when you ps is back together and if the cocking lever seems too loose ie keeps popping back don when in the upright position loosening and moving the position of the bolt can help tighten up this problem.

Finish the job by giving all pivot points a drop of oil and giving the whole action a wipe over to remove finger prints and excess grease marks and then reassmble the stock.

Recently i stripped my prosport again removed on of the preload washers reducing the rifles power from 11.3ftlbs to 10.5ftlbs, this has made the whole gun a helll of a lot nicer to shoot and more accurate too, and i didnt notice th edrop in power either, neither did the 3 ferals, collared dove and the 45yard rook i dropped on sunday with it, but its well worth trying as it certainly makes a difference.

I have also been told that swapping the .177 piston weight for the .22 one and adding more spring preload can make a difference to the firing cycle and is something i will be trying at a later date. I will also be instaling a v-mach piston washer and power-loc spring at some point and i will report on my results with that


Please feel free to add any comments or tips/advice to this guide, and i hope it proves helpful.

[pc_r]

Even though im working on a hw80 that guide was very informative and the pics say a thousand words.

Well done mate.

[Jerry Cornelius]

This is very good I can feel a fiddle coming on (ooer missus )

[Skipper]

Another top draw article Paul, im impressed !

Im a proud owner of Buellered TX200 and it shoots like a dream, the man certainly knows his stuff !!

Ollie

[LouiseB]

Paul you certainly are a dab hand at working your spring lube

[Steve Valentine]

That's exactly how it should be done, people often make the mistake of putting too much grease on the spring.

One thing I did notice is how well made the TX range of spring guns are.

Steve

[wonkyshot]

Many thanks for taking the time to post this thread and include decent explanatory photo's. I have sucessfully stripped, polished and relubed my TX200 MkIII HC and I do think it feels smoother on cocking and groups fractionally better - maybe in my head - maybe not. Very helpfull and did i feel good that i stripped it, and put it back together and seemingly improved it's performance, I am the man!

Much appreciated.

PS Only mishap was really minor -





My scope fell off after 100 odd shots, my bad it wasnt sitting in the rails quite right. Never mind.. All sorted now.

[Ferrets Bueller]

ha ha lol

glad it was of use to you

[Sid66]

brilliant just followed this made my gun super smooth

thanks Ferrets

atb

Sid