BSA Airsporter Strip Down

[Dornfelderliebe]

The washer at the loading tap is a shim washer used to line up the tap with the barrel. Yours may have pinged off to oblivion or if you're very lucky is stuck to the cylinder.
They are cheap to buy.
When reassembling push the tap through from the right hand side (lever side) and I would recommend pushing it further so it pokes out on the opposite side then you can push the spring and ball bearing into their hole using a screwdriver to retain the ball bearing and push back again to centralise the tap.

Don't make my mistake of fitting it then rotating the tap as it is pushed in, allowing the spring and ball bearing to drop into the transfer port

Beware the ball bearing will ping away if given even the slightest chance.
Then go back to the lever side, fit the shim washer, the lever and the screw.

When it's done you should be able to hear a very slight click on opening the tap as the ball bearing flicks into it's recess.

[TonyL]

Well done on the dis-assembly. If you refer back to Pete's articles in Airgun World, the advice is pretty much as per the gents here have given up above. So have a read and combine those sources and all should be apparent. I think Pete's tip on how to compress the new buffer to ease fitment of the new pin is very useful.

[Kevev]

The washer at the loading tap is a shim washer used to line up the tap with the barrel. Yours may have pinged off to oblivion or if you're very lucky is stuck to the cylinder.
They are cheap to buy.
When reassembling push the tap through from the right hand side (lever side) and I would recommend pushing it further so it pokes out on the opposite side then you can push the spring and ball bearing into their hole using a screwdriver to retain the ball bearing and push back again to centralise the tap.

Don't make my mistake of fitting it then rotating the tap as it is pushed in, allowing the spring and ball bearing to drop into the transfer port

Beware the ball bearing will ping away if given even the slightest chance.
Then go back to the lever side, fit the shim washer, the lever and the screw.

When it's done you should be able to hear a very slight click on opening the tap as the ball bearing flicks into it's recess.

Hi there and thanks for the advice,

There was definitely no shim on my loader assembly and I have since found that I did not need to remove the screw holding the lever to the rotating pellet loader to remove it from its bore in the rifle barrel. The indent for the sear ball is at the very end of the bore that the pellet loader rotates in, at the opposite side to the lever. It's not a fully contained dimple, like you would expect, but actually comes out into the very end of the pellet holder. You can actually see the ball in the indent when it is all assembled from the right hand side of the barrel. To reassemble it all I had to do was place the spring inside its hole in the pellet loader and push it, with the lever attached, into pellet loader bore in the barrel. Once the spring was almost inside the bore I put the ball in and pushed it down against the spring pressure, then pushed the pellet loader into its bore fully. Once the pellet loader is all the way home you can only rotate the lever as far as the keying will allow it, and the whole pellet loader mechanism is kept in place by the stock, once the action is fitted back into it.

This is how it is on my gun.

I have just received some parts from TW Chambers, which include a new spring and sear ball for the pellet loader. I managed to lose the ball when I took the pellet loader out of the barrel and despite searching all over my workshop for it could not locate it.

The new steel piston head that came from TW Chambers does not have the very pronounced radius on the front end like the original aluminium piston head, and I am going to need to check that it will be ok without this radius and will be clear of any radius, or chamfer at the end of the cylinder in the barrel.

Cheers,

Kev Ev