PHOENIX MK1 STRIP AND REBUILD
The rifle was serial number 0015, purchased at auction some time ago. It seemed airtight when bought but when tried about 18 months later, it gushed air. This account tells the story of the strip and subsequent rebuild, except that I did not manage to remove all the air valve.
Do not worry, there are no parts that leap into oblivion when you start taking it apart, except possibly the hammer spring and adjuster if you are careless.
I work with barrel to my left. Remove air bottle. Remove the butt; one bolt through the pistol grip and the forend, 2 bolts. Remove the hammer adjustment bolt and spring from the end of the action; 2 grub screws hold it in place. Take care it does not eject when you release the screws. Lift out the adjuster and spring. The hammer should now slide out. Undo and remove the 8 bolts holding the barrel and loading probe assembly onto the main action. Lift the barrel etc away, taking care not to damage the transfer port which will remain in the action body. Pull the transfer port out together with its O ring and place it somewhere safe. Remove end caps on the safety catch. From the start it was obvious that a previous owner had taken it apart. One of the screws (2mm allen key) holding the safety catch was rounded off and had to be removed another way ... I drilled a shallow 3mm hole and lightly tapped a star bit in the hole. The screw came undone quite easily. Undo the 6 screws holding the body frame to the interior blocks ... 2mm allen head screws again.
As you release the 6 body frame screws you may note the two halves of the interior block begin to separate. This is quite OK. Carefully slide the action body parts up and out of the frame. As you do so, the main trigger sears will separate; one attached to the hammer housing (closest to the front of the rifle) and another to the valve housing block. Do not worry, they slide back together quite easily. Lift the 2 body parts out. On my rifle I found a small nylon washer sitting between the sears ... it had clearly migrated there during a previous strip as it should have been, with its partner, on the hammer housing sear pivot pin. Both were missing. The valve stem is now visible, protruding from the left hand end of the brass valve body in the valve housing block. To remove the valve it is first necessary to remove the two threaded dowels; one each side of the valve assembly. They are threaded 3mm and to remove them you need to screw a 3mm bolt (e.g. from the barrel assembly) into them and pull out the dowel. I made a simple puller from suitable washers which pulled the dowel out as I screwed the bolts in. This releases the brass valve end cap. Unfortunately on my rifle this is as far as I got as the main valve body containing the valve head remained in the rifle and it did not move with a slight pull on the valve stem. So I left it. If anyone knows how to remove all the valve body, please let me know. I did remove, clean and replace the two O rings I found there.
As I could go no further, I reassembled the valve end cap and started to rebuild the rifle.
Reassembly is basically a reverse of the strip but the following notes may help. Check to ensure that the trigger guard bolts are not protruding into the bottom of the frame. My rifle had clearly had replacement bolts fitted and I found that a bolt that protrudes may interfere with the sears.
You can assemble the two housings held together or separately. Separately is easier, starting with the valve housing. Move the underlever down while entering the housing into the frame and secure it with the 4 screws. Then feed the hammer housing into place, making sure the sear of the valve housing passes into the channel in the hammer housing, not into the circular hole that takes the hammer. Also ensure the sear on the hammer housing passes below the valve sear so that it is against the bottom of the frame. Feed the hammer housing up against the valve housing and secure it with the two screws. Add the hammer, narrow end first, into the end of the hammer housing, followed by the spring and the adjuster. Holding the action frame firmly ( I did so vertically with the air filler on my knee), push in on the adjuster until the central groove is level with the 2 grub screws and tighten them to hold the adjuster and hammer assembly in place. Now return the underlever to the rest position, you should get the feeling of cocking the action against spring pressure. Pull the trigger; hopefully it will fire.
When I did this on my rifle it would not cock and it took me a long time to puzzle out why. Initially I suspected a trigger issue even though I had not disturbed any settings. Stripping the trigger parts to clean and inspect them was straightforward ... they are held by cross pins that have nylon washers on them. One pin holds the sear bar (about 2.5cm); removal of the pin allows the bar to come away with its spring. Refitting is easy; just ensure the spring locates on its peg. Putting the nylon washers back on the pin was the most fiddly part. Removing the trigger is similar although you will need to push the underlever pivot pin out to remove the trigger. Note there are black plastic washers on it. Again, make sure the trigger spring is seated correctly when replacing it. The nylon washers are again fiddly but a dab of grease to keep them against the housing while you tease them into position helps. I was missing 2 nylon washers but made some by slicing some off suitable nylon tubing.
The solution to my non-cocking issue lay in that nylon washer I had found during the strip plus the fact that the person who had stripped the rifle before had clearly not assembled the small leaf spring on the hammer sear correctly. The spring needs to exert force against the hammer sear bar which then pushes against the bar from the valve housing and was not doing so sufficiently. The spring had a slight curvature so I reversed it and all was well. Presumably the presence of the nylon washer between the sears just gave the extra pressure needed to allow intermittent cocking before I stripped the rifle.
Having done this I carefully screwed an air bottle into the filler until it started to vent air from the transfer port hole. I had been advised that this may well blow away any dirt and allow the valve to seal again.
I reassembled the barrel housing, taking care that the transfer port and O ring was back in place and that the loading probe spigot located in the hole in the bar of the underlever.
Then put back the safety catch end plugs and screws. Note that the safety catch is reversible. Just remove the spring from the side of the action ... one screw; and reassemble the other way round.
I was delighted to find the rifle held air when I tried it. The air blast must have done the trick although I am still puzzled as to how the valve body comes out. I test fired a few shots then resorted to a short chrono session to set the power as required by the adjuster. While doing this I found that at the end of a magazine and with the magazine removed, it is not necessary to ‘dry fire’. With the underlever in the down (or forward) position, simply pull the trigger and bring the underlever back to rest. The mechanism does not then cock and there is no need to dry fire.
I think I will have to live with the breech O ring. A later rifle, but still MK1, has a larger plastic ring fitted in the action, not a rubber O ring; or maybe there is an O ring underneath it. No matter, it seems I will just learn not to dry fire without a magazine in place.
I am also looking for some of the small star washers that fit on the ends of the pins on the underlever assembly. Two of these fell away, presumably broken (a tab missing) but just held in place when I refitted them. They are quite narrow in outside diameter and none of my supply of such items for the pin diameter was small enough.
Phil Russell
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(more later).
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when I got it out, I ground either end of the circlip so it had a "lead in" to make it easier if it needs doing again. The endcap/loading shutter then came off and the little shutter/transfer port thing lifted off the end of the cylinder. There is a flat section circlip in the endcap,which opens and closes the shutter when the endcap is twisted.
I tried Plus gas, tried to make up a tool like the proper peg spanner etc but it would not shift. I sent it to Mick T20 who managed to get if off without damaging it. nut sure whether he made up a peg spanner or a soft bush to grip it.
