Idiots guide to classic airgun strips (pt 1)

[ggggr]

On the British version you will need your piece of tube with the slots cut in to push down on spring guide to enable you to tap out pin. Its difficult to line it all up( and hard to get trigger back) so once pin has moved enough,leave punch in the hole and as you push on your bit of tube you should be able to pull pin out with fingers. Remove your punch and ease pressure on tube. Guide and mainspring should come out. Ease piston out. Check if washer needs replacing (and whether you will have to drill lock pin out on German guns -refer to above post). Cleaned and lubed? Put piston ,mainspring and guide back in the cylinder and then the sleeve. With the German guns, push down on your bit of tube and locate the pin that holds the sleeve and then take your time to put trigger and pivot pin in. On British ones You push down and just locate your pin and use your punch or a slave pin to locate the sleeve hole with the hole on the other side of the cylinder. Take your time and wangle the pin through the sleeve,side of trigger,floating bit of trigger,other side of trigger, slleve and cylinder, ( your mate with the German one will be laughing). THIS WOULD BE MUCH EASIER WITH A SPRING COMPRESSOR. Hook on trigger spring and replace washers and end cap. Replace your barrel plunger and spring back in the barrel if you have had them out. GO TO PART 3

[ggggr]

Replace barrel and barrel pivot bolt and the lock screw. You can use or make up a bit of shim so the cut outs in the bolt head line up with the lock screw. Replace cocking arm and its pivot and lock screw. Put action back in stock and tighten up stock screws. Replace sights.
I find these a very well made,robust gun and an ideal starter to strip. The only real problem on the British ones being lining up the trigger when replacing the pivot pin. The pistons are much better than the 22,s and I reckon if you have a decent piston and breech washer and keep an eye on the pivot screws,will probably not need doing again until you need a new mainspring. I think meteor springs will fit the 27 and are a touch "softer" although there is not much in it. If the trigger goes light, you can file or stone the trigger face square (and /or ) the piston rod face. You can also play with different bits of trigger spring to get a feel you like. Manchester Airguns used to sell lengths of spring for a few quid and this was ideal for playing with trigger and barrel plunger springs.

[ggggr]

I cant do links ---but if you check Richiet,s "webley mk 3 date " thread of 18/4/09 and see my post2 then that will do for most of it. Dont know about guide but strip is very easy ---take out of stock,take off cocking arm and under lever--Take breech plate off and remove tap. Take out trigger screws and then pins to remove trigger and sear--UNDO LEFT HAND tHREAD SCREW-Unscrew trigger block-- Remove mainspring and piston----(hard bit coming up) I think earlier ones had the piston washer rivetted on and later ones screwed---Sometimes,as on all guns with a countersunk screw holding on the piston washer, The screw gets battered and can be hard to remove, usually resulting in a damaged piston washer. If you are lucky then the washer will be in good nick. I think its pot luck---Ive seen some guns around 45 or 50 years old that the washer is okay on and others where it has rotted away, probably due to too much oil being put into the cylinder. I hope this helps.
Regarding putting the trigger back on these, its a "patience" job---One of those that will go in first time or spend 30 mins swearing at it. You put the sear in and locate it with the pin, then you put the trigger spring in and sort of have to push the trigger up and forwards to compress the spring a bit and locate the trigger pin. If the gun doesnt cock and you are sure the you have done everything right, remove the main spring and see if it cocks then ie. if the piston is coming far enough back. Sometimes the cocking arm has bent a touch and the piston rod is a few thou short of engaging. IF YOU ARE SURE THIS IS WHAT IS HAPPENING-remove the cocking arm and place either end on a block of wood, then place a smaller block of wood on the bend of the arm and give this block a sharp tap with a smallish hammer. This should cure the problem. NEXT UP ---WEBLEY FALCON ,then HAWK MK1


Re--the mainspring. Troubled shooter says " The original spring was: 9 ½" x 27/32" x 29 coils (24.2cm x 21.30mm) "
I found a spring that was 20.5mm Od and about 2.75mm thick wire. I cut it to the same length as the Webley spring and it is a nice, pleasant to shoot and easy to cock plinker.

[Ulverston]

Excellent...

[ggggr]

Remove rearsight. remove two front stock screws and the screw in front of trigger guard and remove action from stock. Undo cocking arm lock screw and pivot screw and remove cocking arm.Undo locking screw and barrel pivot screw and remove barrel. Small screw on left of breech block if you want to remove plunger and spring.Tap out trigger pivot pin and remove trigger and trigger spring (more in minute). Tap out sear pin and remove sear. The trigger bit you pull on goes into the bit that endgages on the sear and has a small pin securing it. These often wangle and I remove the pin and solder the two bits of the trigger together (making sure pin hole lines up)> you could try araldite but make sure pin holes line up ang you grease the pin or use paper clip till glue dries. On the left of the cylinder is a small 4ba grub screw. You need to remove this before trying to undo trigger block--The heads are often broken and you may have to try to tap it round with a small punch or grip it with long nose pliers. I had to drill one out and then retapped hole to 3ba. (screws and taps available from chronos etc and come in handy). Unscrew trigger block. There is not as much pressure as on a lot of guns. Keep pressure on until its undone and slowly release. GO TO PART 2

[ggggr]

Remove guide. spring and piston. Piston washer is leather and held on by a countersunk screw on a dished washer. The pistons on these can wear where the cocking arm pushes as the metal is quite thin. If you know someone handy they could probably mig weld where its worn and file it up. I have fitted a Diana 25 spring to one I did for my niece to give the gun an easier life and to make it easier for her to cock. Worth thinking about if you only plink. Every thing clean and lubed? Put piston, spring and guide back in cylinder. (sometimes you have to push edges of washer to ease it into front of cylinder where cocking arm slot finishes). Place piece of thick cardboard on a block of wood on floor and place breech jaws down. You should then be able to put pressure on and screw block into cylinder. The cardboard enables cylinder to turn so you can get a part turn with both hands! Replace small screw on side of the cylinder.Replace barrel and pivot and lock screws. Do same with cocking arm. Replace sear and pin then (as with mk 3 post above) replace trigger spring and push up and forward to line trigger and pin. Replace action in stock. Tighten the 3 screws and refit rearsight. WEBLEY HAWK MK 1 next

[ggggr]

The plastic rearsights on these are fragile so Id just be careful rather than remove it. Undo 2 front stock screws and one in front of trigger and remove action from stock. This rear screw can strip and Ive tapped them out to 1ba when they have, Ive heard of people putting a nut on the inside of the trigger housing but have not tried this. Sometimes this screw can push on the sear and stop the rifle from cocking. A washer under the head of the screw should cure this although Im sure you could grind away the underside of the sear. With action out of stock you can ondo cam and slide out barrel.(suggest you do this with breech open or you wont be able to get to barrel plunger later) You can take circlip off cam and remove cam to grease up. Remove roll pin in cocking arm and remove arm. Depress barrel plunger and remove pivot pin and then plunger and spring to grease up. Flick the two circlips off the trigger pins (noting how trigger goes) and remove pins and then trigger,trigger spring. safety catch and sear and sear spring. I find with hawks its easier to place encap on piece of wood and push down on the breech end and remove cylinder end pin. GO TO PT 2

[aerocomengineer]

I got a mk 3 and gave it a total stripdown, it was in turps for two weeks to clean everything. that done i found the sear spring in two bits, got another from local gunshop and yes done some swearing trying to get it in, secret is hold the trigger and sear together, push the two bits up into the housing, once located use a fine tapered punch to hold the two componants together, once you have got them in, follow up with the pin, if your pin is to worn, use the smooth end of the right size drill bit cut to size, i cut mine with a dremel and a fine cutting disk. worked a treat.

[ggggr]

The one been waiting for. This is very similar to the Tornado underlever and I think a lot of parts are inter changable. This one arrived without the trigger adjusting screw up the centre of the rear stock screw but it doesn,t make much diffence to the trigger anyway. I think this is a 3.5mm screw and one from a light switch plate will cut down to fit. Remove this screw as it makes it easier to undo the rear stock screw. I use a stubby screwdriver ground a fork in to undo this. Remove the two front stock screws and lift action from stock. Tap out front trigger pin and remove sear and then rear trigger pin to remove trigger and its spring. Undo the cocking arm pivot screw and remove cocking arm from its slot and slide out through the bracket welded to the underside of cylinder. You may have to push up against the spring steel bit of the lever to get it out. Inspect the lever to see if it has the nylon rubbing plate standing proud of the lever. If not, or if it is missing, you can dig it out with a pin or similar and put some epoxy adhesive in the slot before replacing it so it stands proud. I used half a bush from a butterfly tin opener on my Tornado. Undo barrel pivot lock screw and barrel pivot screw and remove barrel from jaws. Go to part 2.

[ggggr]

On this gun the lock screw would not come out even when unscrewed. I eventually had to drill a part of the screw head to get something under it. Probably not a common problem and I think it was down to an off centre screw head. If you want to remove the barrel plunger and spring, use a pin punch to tap out the small pin in the breech block with a pin that holds them. Clean and grease and replace now. Put a bit of pressure on the cylinder end cap and tap out its pin with a punch. Slowly release the pressure as you remove the punch. The mainsprings should now come out, followed by the piston. The piston washer is a leather, secured by a rivet. Mine didnt need changing. You can try to grind the end of the rivet off or drill it if the washer and buffer need changing.(I have since done one and managed to punch the rivet out and re-use it) I have tapped a piston to about 8mm and used a countersunk screw on one gun and a 5mm screw secured by a piece of tapped roundbar inside the piston on another instead of sending off for a rivet. (I made up my own leatherwashers). Clean and lube everything and replace the piston. Slide cocking arm through the welded bracket on the underside of the cylinder and locate it in the cocking slot in the cylinder (remember you may have to use a bit of pressure to compress the spring steel bit to get it through the slot). Locate cocking lever in its slot in the breech block and replace its screw. Replace sear into front of trigger block and line it up and replace its pin. Replace the trigger and its spring and try to line it up with its pin. Its one of those things that will go in first time or may take ten minutes of swearing. You may have to push the sear up a bit to let the trigger get into the right place. Replace mainsprings (Bsa meteor mk1-mk5 mainsprings are a better option and a mk6 will give power but make the gun hard to cock). Replace cylinder end cap and locate the pin. Place barrel in jaws and replace the barrel pivot screw and its lock screw. Go to pt3

[ggggr]

Replace action in stock and replace the two front stock screws and then the rear one. I usually pull the trigger when screwing in the rear screw as it can feel home but it is only in a couple of threads as it is pushing against the sear. This can cause the screw to pull out when the gun is cocked and result in a split stock. Replace the trigger adjusting screw and turn it until it just starts to move the trigger. On my gun there was something catching when I cocked and released the gun. It was one of the front stock screws catching on the cocking arm so I just filed a bit off the end of the screw.