How tight? - Spring Guide & Top Hat

[rabbitslayer]

Afternoon everyone,

I'm planning on smartening up the internals of a brand new HW80. I've got replacement delrin spring guide and top hat but, when fitted into the spring they are absolutely rock solid. No movement at all and impossible to remove without inserting a rod into the spring and tapping them out.

Is this right? I know it's preferable to have a 'snug' fit between these and the spring but I thought the spring should be free enough to rotate when being cocked / released (fired) or is this what the 'slip washers' are for?

Advice please...

[Blackbaronfish]

In general the guide will just slide in the non compressed spring as when its compressed it will slide very easily.

BBF

[CapitalBee]

I'd follow the same advice for the top hat to be honest. I had a slightly tighter fitting top hat in a recent Terrus tune up. What I hadn't accounted for was the coil inner diameter being smaller farther down the spring. The upshot of it was the top hat actually jammed in the spring during cycle and it snapped the top hat upon firing.

[POK!]

I fitted TBT guides in my 99 but they were very tight with oem spring, shaved a few thou of guide and picked up nearly 2 ft/lbs. This got me thinking about my Longbow which had a Maccari kit fitted which came pre-assembled. The gun was good but the accuracy seemed to go off as you shot. I knew the spring was very tight on rear guide and once I managed to remove guide from spring and reduce its OD problem was immediately solved. Both guides are synthetic and I left both tophats as they were. Both guns were somewhat hold sensitive before and much improved after.

[rabbitslayer]

I fitted TBT guides in my 99 but they were very tight with oem spring, shaved a few thou of guide and picked up nearly 2 ft/lbs.

Haven't got access to a lathe.. How else can these be reduced?

[TORNADOS7]

I fitted a 'Tbt tuning' kit to my 95k, the guides were quite tight to start off with but after 200-300 shots it settled in nicely, my advice would be to shoot it in !...

[lensman57]

The " generic " guides are always over sized to allow to be correctly sized to the spring. If there is no lathe available then a wet and dry paper wrapped around the guide will do the job as only very little ( 0.1~0.2 millimeter ) needs to be taken off. The correct fit is slightly tighter than a sliding fit but not too tight as to prevent the spring from a smooth uncoil and release. If you can fit the guide with a slight push on to the spring then the fit is correct. All the springs in my guns seem to be sized differently on each end so sizing has to be done accordingly.

A.G

[tinbum]

Haven't got access to a lathe.. How else can these be reduced?

Please don't! That guide has been fitted specifically to run with the heavy gauge and long stroke of the HW80. If you don't like it feel free to return it for a refund, but please don't ruin it first!

[rabbitslayer]

Please don't! That guide has been fitted specifically to run with the heavy gauge and long stroke of the HW80. If you don't like it feel free to return it for a refund, but please don't ruin it first!

Hi mate,

It's not that I don't like it, it's that when I came to remove the guides from the spring (already fitted to the spring provided in the kit) I couldn't pull them out for 'love nor money' I couldn't even turn them using my full force and I'm not a weakling...

My 'concern' is (and remember I've not done this before), will this tightness not allow a smooth release on firing due to it restricting the spring turning. If you're telling me it won't have a bad effect then I'll go ahead with the installation but I can't understand why folk bother to polish / lubricate the spring ends to 'ease' the spring turning if it doesn't turn.. if that makes sense?

I don't really want a refund, I want to continue with my plans to upgrade the 80

[tinbum]

As I told you this morning, when in use its not as tight, but you will need to remove it to reduce the spring! My wife assembles and boxes the kits, so I think it's more likely its just a little stuck and a quick clockwise twist with rubber (as described in this mornings pm) will have it moving. Unless she was angry when she fitted it?!
All kits have a lifetime guarantee, but I put an identical one in my new HW80k last week. It shoots lurvely!

[thisisdonald]

I like my guides to be tight.. to the point where you screw them onto the spring, but not so tight that you cant do it easily by hand. Tophat i like to just stick in the end of the spring, easily able to pull out with two fingers.
Reason being the front end easily rotates in the piston whilst the guide keeps the spring straight during compression as well as at rest. It works for me

[POK!]

I should add in my case it was clear both rifles were underperforming and this needed addressing. If it's shooting well then keep shooting and see what happens.

[bucketboy]

Haven't got access to a lathe.. How else can these be reduced?

I have and I'm in peterborough

[PCPShooter]

Springs open out (internally) on compression generally so looser in guide when in use in rifle......

[Jonjon79]

My TBT kit in my TX is spot on. The spring guide is a snug fit, it has to be screwed in and, the top hat it also snug - this kind of pops in.

I was worried at first because it's tighter than the original steel fittings but, I needn't have worried - That bugger Nick was right again and, my rifle is now as good as I can make it