Results 1 to 15 of 200

Thread: Idiots guide to classic airgun strips (pt 1)

Hybrid View

Previous Post Previous Post   Next Post Next Post
  1. #1
    ggggr's Avatar
    ggggr is offline part time super hero and seeker of justice
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Flintshire Ch6 sort of near bagillt
    Posts
    2,348

    Relum underlever pistol strip (pt1)

    UPDATE 23 06 2017--ANOTHER PISTOL ARRIVED WITH A DIFFERNET SEAR/PLUNGER AND NEEDS STRIPPING DIFFERNTLY TO THIS GUIDE. YOU NEED TO REMOVE ALL THE TRIGGER AND SEAR BEFORE YOU CAN REMOVE THE CYLINDER END PLUG.

    This arrived today. I have been after looking at one for a while. It is an underlever pistol with a flip out loading tap. It is of heavy construction with basic sights.
    Tap out the rear sight if you are worried about damaging it while you are working. There is only one screw holding the action to the frame. It is a large screw through the bottom of the grip. The smaller hole to the rear of the frame is a hole for adjusting the trigger, although this example was missing the screw (3 or 4 mm). After you undo the large screw and lift the action out of the frame, watch out for a trigger spring flying out. This is a coil sppring that sits in the frame like the Diana/Milbro G4, Slavia Zvp etc.
    Looking from the front of the gun towards the cylinder, you will see a small screw on either side of the cylinder. Still looking from the front,the one on the left is the tap pivot screw and the one on the right contains a coil spring and a bb that loacte the tap when it is closed. Remove,clean and lube these bits and keep them somewhere safe.
    Looking at the action from the rear, into the trigger housing,you will see the forks of the sear on either side of a tube. This tube is part of the trigger. You can tap the cylinder and this tube should drop out. You will see that it has a notch on it (like a sear) to hold the piston rod when the gun is cocked.
    With that out, you can knock out the cylinder endcap retaining pin. There is not much pressure so it should not fly, but it always pays to keep a bit of pressure on endcaps when removing pins. With the cap removed, the mainsprings (yes 2, like the rifles) and the guide should come out. The guide was at the front of the springs and I put it back the same way. I don't know if it would work at the rear. It is very small because of the inner mainspring.
    Now tap out the trigger pin at the front of the trigger housing and remove the trigger and its small hairpin spring. Try to see how it goes for when you put the thing back together. Knock out the rear pin in the housing and remove the sear from the back of the housing.( Not knowing what sort of screw the trigger adjuster should be,you may have to remove this screw first)
    Undo the cocking arm pivot screw and you should now be able to use it to push the piston to the back of the cylinder. When it gets most of the way there, the cocking arm should drop out of the cylinder and you can then remove it from the front of the housing. Withdraw the piston from the cylinder. The piston washer is held by a threaded nut that has 2 holes for a peg spanner. As the nut was not tight, I used the nose of some long nosed pliers to undo it. There was a steel washer under the piston washer.
    Clean and lube every thing up. Go to part 2
    Last edited by ggggr; 05-03-2023 at 04:05 PM. Reason: Another pistol that strips differntly turned up
    Cooler than Mace Windu with a FRO, walking into Members Only and saying "Bitches, be cool"

  2. #2
    ggggr's Avatar
    ggggr is offline part time super hero and seeker of justice
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Flintshire Ch6 sort of near bagillt
    Posts
    2,348

    Re: Relum underlever pistol strip (pt2)

    Put your steel washer,piston washer and nut back on the piston and nip up the nut. You could use some thread lock or gently peen the nut to stop it coming undone.
    I would now replace the loading plate and the locating bb, with the bits you have been keeping safe. The plate has a pip on it for the ball to locate on so you should be able to work out which way is goes. Slide the piston part way into the cylinder and then slide the cocking arm into the front of the trigger housing and slide it towards the rear of the cylinder (helps if the action is upside down) until it locates into the cylinder and piston slot and then slide it forwards, which will pull the piston fully forwards into the cylinder. Locate the cocking arm pivot screw.
    Now slide the sear into the trigger housing from the rear, with the rounded side to the front and the fork to the rear. You should be able to work out which way up it goes by looking at he trigger before you put it in. Replace the pin.
    Now get your trigger and trigger spring (sits in the middle of the top of the trigger). The straight leg sits n top of the trigger and the hooked bit sits against the cocking arm. Locate it and replace the pin.
    Now place the guide and mainsprings into the piston and locate the end cap. With the cap in place, you should be able to push the tubular trigger piece through the hole under the rear of the trigger housing into the cap. With this located, you can replace the endcap pin.
    If you have a screw for the trigger adjuster, you can fit that now.
    Put the little coil spring into the tubular trigger piece and then locate and gently lower it into the frame.
    Locate and replace frame screw.
    Replace sight if you took it off.
    I need to look at this and get a few more shots out of it. The trouble with something like this is you cannot get parts if something goes wrong.
    The 2 mainsprings are quite lightweight and might be better with one spring, but I'm leaving it as standard for now. The trigger is heavy and cleaning up the face of the tubular bit that holds the piston did not help much. None of the faces looked bad. I am always wary of adjusting the triggers to reduce engagement as it can cause problems.
    It plinked! It was shooting high, despite an attempt to heat up and bend the rearsight down a bit. The trigger is heavy, even with the adjustment. IT was not very accurate, but some of that might be due to the strip down and settling. The smoking was stopping and the grouping was getting better.
    It is a strange pistol. The loading plate seals very well but the gun feels quite harsh to shoot. Maybe it is a bit top heavy. Like I said, maybe one spring and a guide at the rear might help. The trigger is quite simple but overly complicated for what it is. I feel that the Slavia ZVP/Diana Modell 5 set up might have been a cheaper/better option.
    OK---It has a heavier trigger and is not as accurate as the Gamo Falcon that copied aspects of it, But I bet it will last a lot longer

    A little update. I tried leaving the inner mainspring out and it reduced power too much.
    I noticed that the foresight was moving so took out the blade and tapped the top of the dovetails.
    I will adjust the sight some more shortly.
    What I have noticed, is that even shooting two handed, you have to really GRIP the pistol otherwise it tends to go all over the place. I think it is a combination of a heavy trigger and a top/front heavy gun. With a good solid grip, it was starting to group ok.
    With the trigger being poor, I would forget about normal trigger technique. It is a bit like an RO 72 in that respect, with the best results achieved by "Yanking" on the trigger firmly, rather than trying to get up the slack and judge when it will go off! If you do try a normal technique on it, you will probably find you will pull get the veins in your arm popping and you will pull the shot anyway.
    I've tried shooting with the wire stock on. It does not give a great sight picture and you do feel very cramped. It is actually pretty accurate like this.
    Last edited by ggggr; 09-03-2014 at 05:05 PM. Reason: update.
    Cooler than Mace Windu with a FRO, walking into Members Only and saying "Bitches, be cool"

  3. #3
    ggggr's Avatar
    ggggr is offline part time super hero and seeker of justice
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Flintshire Ch6 sort of near bagillt
    Posts
    2,348

    Pre war Diana 25 strip (full stock) pt1

    This is for a pre war, full stocked Diana 25. This is the one with the screw on end cap. I've been told earlier ones had the cap inside the cylinder.
    The strip is similar to the post war model and the British made ones, with only a few differences.
    Undo the front stock screws and the rear one that is in front of the trigger guard and lift the action out of the stock.
    Undo the cocking arm pivot lock screw and then the pivot and remove the cocking arm.
    Undo the barrel pivot lock screw and then the barrel pivot screw and remove the barrel. It looks like there should be shims on the breech block but they were missing on mine. If you want to remove the barrel plunger, depress the plunger and then undo the grub screw on the LHS of the breech block. Release the pressure on the plunger and it and its spring should come out. You can clean,lube and replace it now.
    Undo the cylinder end cap.
    Remove the trigger spring from the tang one the cylinder sleeve. Undo the lock nut on the cylinder/trigger pivot screw. Put some pressure onto the cylinder sleeve and the pivot screw should push out. Remove the trigger. Release the pressure and the sleeve should come out and then you can remove the guide,mainspring and piston.
    The piston has a leather cup washer and a fibre spacer. They are held on with a screw. If you need to remove or change these, you will have to drill out a small pin on the side of the piston, that is a keeper for the screw. Luckily mine was in good condition.
    Clean and lube everything and go to Pt 2
    Cooler than Mace Windu with a FRO, walking into Members Only and saying "Bitches, be cool"

  4. #4
    ggggr's Avatar
    ggggr is offline part time super hero and seeker of justice
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Flintshire Ch6 sort of near bagillt
    Posts
    2,348

    Pre war Diana 25 strip (full stock) pt 2

    Put the piston,mainspring and guide into the cylinder and then the cylinder sleeve. Make sure it is the right way round. Compress the spring and use a slave peg to locate and hold the sleeve. Keeping pressure on, you should be able to locate the cylinder screw/trigger pivot screw and push it through the trigger. Once located, replace the lock nut. Replace the trigger spring, making sure one end is on the TANG of the cylinder sleeve and the other is on its PIP on the trigger. Screw on cylinder end cap.
    Locate breech block shims and place barrel in the jaws. Locate and screw home the pivot screw and the lock screw.
    Locate cocking arm and replace its pivot and keeper screw.
    Refit action in stock and replace the stock screws.

    I think this is a nice little rifle. I was surprised at how good the internals were on mine. The piston washer was in good condition and the piston head screw retaining peg had no witness marks round it. I had a quick plink and it is accurate enough. The trigger has a long pull but is pleasant to use.

    It is interesting to note that the German post war 25's had one pin to hold the sleeve and one to act as a trigger pivot. The British version just had one pin to do both jobs.
    Cooler than Mace Windu with a FRO, walking into Members Only and saying "Bitches, be cool"

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    Cambridge UK
    Posts
    7,075

    Webley Service MKII

    I just had a need to strip one of these to correct a couple of faults and was surprised we had not covered this classic yet. So here it is: really a very easy job but maybe daunting because the action looks complicated.
    WEBLEY SERVICE MKII

    This is a third series rifle, No. S9304 in .22 flavour. The strip was carried out in order to discover why the trigger was very light and to change the mainspring as power was a little down. The strip includes help on stripping the basic components to access the piston and mainspring,but does not deal with the front block with the barrel locking mechanism.

    To begin the strip, remove the barrel. Remove the butt plate and then the stock by undoing the large screw bolt inside the end of the stock . The action is now a very handy size. With the trigger uppermost. undo the large bolt retaining screw at the front of the trigger housing and place it safe as it is easily lost. There is a thin screw that passes through the rear of the trigger guard/housing. Remove it but try and keep the trigger housing against the action; not crucial though. Now release the large bolt at the front and lift away the trigger housing complete with trigger and a long sear. Note the small spring in the sear. Do not remove it if it is firm but make sure you do not lose it. There is no need to remove the trigger or sear unless they need replacing.

    Now to remove the cocking arm mechanism. It pivots on a pin, about 6mm diameter, at the front of the action. A small grub screw in the end of the action needs to be removed before you can drift this pin out. Put the grub screw safe and drift the pin out ... do not worry, it does not retain the mainspring. Remove the cocking linkage mechanism by unhooking it from the slot in the piston. There is no need to remove the interceptor sear (= anti-bear trap sear) on top of the action. This pops down to hold the piston back when the rifle is cocked and the barrel is ‘broken’. When the barrel is located against the action the barrel pushes the interceptor sear out of the way.

    The mainspring and piston are held in by the threaded end block. To remove this I mounted the cylinder in a padded vice and carefully unscrewed the end block; starting the movement by using the flat side of a spanner. I realised that a small home-made tool would work wonders here ... a simple piece of wood 15mm x 18mm x about 10cm allowed me to unscrew the block easily. But I still wore a leather glove as I had no idea what preload was present. In fact, preload was not much and the end block had a captive spring guide so controlling the spring release was easy. The spring and end block simply lift away. The piston can be slid out but you need to depress the interceptor sear to allow the piston to pass it.

    The spring was 32 coils at 3.1mm wire diameter. It was clear that the spring had seen better days as one end had severely compressed coils. A standard Airsporter spring was a perfect fit but on my spring was a coil too long so I trimmed it back to match the original.

    The rebuild was basically a reverse of the strip. I removed and cleaned the piston; the piston ring was fine. As recommended, I relubed the ring with a little motor oil before refitting. Make sure the piston passes the interceptor sear. I now added the trigger housing. I realised that my light trigger issue had been due to the trigger housing not being bolted tight against the action. In part this was due to the location of the small locking screw because in its original position it allowed a little play in the main bolt. So I fitted a thin washer under the bolt head and the bolt now tightened nicely with the retaining screw perfectly aligned. The action was now again mounted in the padded vice. I lightly greased the spring before adding the end block and spring guide. There was about 20mm more preload with the new spring. I used my wooden tool in the end of the end block and compressed the spring and turned the tool to engage the threads. Not too difficult at all but I still wore a thick leather glove just in case it slipped. Screw the end block all the way in until the slots and the holes for the pivot pin align. Add the cocking linkage and feed the barrel pivot into the end block slot. Replace the pivot pin and add the retaining grub screw.

    Replace stock and butt plate. Slide barrel back into its housing. Result: good trigger action again and increased performance at a little over 520fps. A couple of shots dieseled to begin with but the rifle soon settled down.

    Tip: If you think the barrel is not seating properly, a new breech seal can be easily made from a red fibre washer. The barrel lock bolt handle pulls the barrel firmly against the breech seal.

    Cheers, Phil

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •