BSA piston circlip removal - argh *&^%*^&%*%*&^^%^%*....any tips?

[urx]

I shall give this a try and report back….if it works wonderful as picking away at it like this is a recipe for madness

[Troubledshooter]

The circlip will not compress enough as the groove is not deep enough. That would be too easy.

[slow_runner]

Consider drilling an access hole opposite the cocking slot so pressure on the circlip from that side may allow enough exposed ring to be lifted????

[trajectory]

This sounds a really horrid thing to have to fiddle around with. Never seen one but inbetween attempts at it if you fancy a break & have a camera handy I'd be interested in seeing what you are faced with. Wonder how they wrote a method up in the service guide for dealers or if they left them to their own devices?
Best of luck with it.......any chance holding one end of the clip back, preventing it rotating while wedging something under the other end even though the hap is small?

[Dornfelderliebe]

There are pictures of the piston head and ring on the Airgun spares web site go to https://www.airgunspares.com/gunspar...w-trooper.html.
Hope this link works.
I had one of these set ups in my Mk4 meteor and my scorpion, you've got to hold the piston head still while trying to pick the ring loose then lever it out far easier said than done.

I think I ended up clamping the head up against the piston with the sash clamp I use to compress springs. Once the head could no longer spin round I could use both hands to winkle the ends of the split ring out and push it back until it came off the end of the piston head. A pick would have helped.
I recall using the sash clamp on reassembly to squash the new buffer washer enough to slide the ring down the shaft into place. That was a two handed/screwdriver job.

[trajectory]

That looks awkward.......makes you wonder...?..thread the piston head & pop a nut on it from inside the piston, cross pin the piston head, or just cut the old buffer off split a new one & jam it in between the piston & piston head, modify piston for a keyhole like some Meteors

Horrid design. Mind you maybe some of my ideas aren't much better

[urx]

ALL of your ideas are superior to what they actually went with

I'm going to try a machine vice and picks to see if I can beat it....if not then the dremel beckons...weaken the midpoint of the circlip and break the bugger off.
I have a spare one and even a spare piston head lol

its tempting to just buy a new carrier and assemble all new spares then sell the original unit on fleabay and let it drive someone else mad...grrrr

[oliver13]

The clip in question is a square section wire loop. I used a slightly ground down electricians screw driver, pushed into the split to spread it, then lift off the center pin vertically.
I found I could put it back the same way, with a silent hoopla.
I was recommended to replace it with a proper relevantly sized spring washer, I think by Ggggr? Thanks for that, but after doing it a few times it isn't a problem once you have the knack. Hoopla.

As an aside, any alternative to the BSA ring washer thing would probably be an improvement. Its difficult to see how it could be worse.