Weihrauch HW98/95 Strip-down
After a few weeks of shooting my HW98 down at the club, I decided to have a go at stripping it down due mainly to the loud 'Twang' it made upon firing. I'd read that nowadays, rifles from the factory needed re-lubing and fettling before they could reach their full potential, so I decided to give it a go. Here are a few pictures and my comments from along the way, I hope this will help you if you decide to do your own.
What a stroke of luck! I found that the wooden spring compressor I made for my Feinwerkbau FWB124 would also do for the HW98 without any modification, great! I started off by cleaning my workbench down and lining it with clean newspaper. Next job was to take the gun to pieces.
Click on the thumbnails for a full size picture.
In pieces
As you can see, there are only 4 screws to undo to dismantle the rifle, 2 in the trigger guard and 1 each side in the stock.
Removing the barrel shroud. There are 2 very small grub screws underneath the shroud.
Here you can see how I clamped the action down
And this is a view from the trigger end
After I had clamped the action into the compressor, the first job was to screw the clamp in to take up the pressure on the end block, now, as the end block is slightly recessed into the action, a little tip I was given was to put a pound coin, or in my case, a euro coin in between the head and the block, perfect! I screwed the clamp in just enough to take up the pressure, no more.
The first job was to push out the 2 metal pins that hold the Record trigger mechanism in. This was easy enough using a small drill and a toffee hammer, be very careful though, as underneath the trigger mechanism is the safety catch complete with spring. This is NOT part of the trigger unit and will fly out as soon as you lift the trigger out of the slot, because of this, I placed a plastic bag over the end in case of a miss-hap.
This could save you hours searching for a small spring!
Here are the 2 pins you have to press out along with the safety catch. With the gun upside down in the clamp, they push out from the opposite side as shown in the photo
The 2 pins push out very easily once the pressure is taken up, they are 'One way' pins, meaning they'll only go in one way and come out one way as they must be slightly tapered. Anyway, there were no dramas and the trigger unit simply lifted out leaving the separate safety catch in the slot, this I removed.
A view of the empty slot
The next job was to push/knock out the 4 square metal blocks which hold the back block in against the spring pressure. I did this by cropping a small Allen key down on the short end, this then is short enough to go in the slot and into the 4 small holes and with a tap from my toffee hammer, 2 of the square blocks popped out, the other 2 came out when I inserted the long end of the Allen key through the holes and tapped them out from the other side. It's worth experimenting with the compressor and if you can get the pressure just right, everything will be easy, not enough pressure, or too much makes life more difficult.
Photo of 2 of the metal blocks, there are 2 each side of the action
This is a good view of the back block coming out
The component parts listed
The next job is to separate the barrel and breach from the action, using a large flathead screwdriver, undo the right side screw with washer, then undo the screw on the left hand side. It may need pushing out with a screwdriver.
This is a shot after I separated the components. When wiggling the breach off, there are 2 very thin metal shims, be careful not to lose these. Now the cocking arm is free, it can be pulled out of the cocking shoe which is in the piston slide.
Once the small cocking shoe has been removed, the piston itself is free to slide completely out of the tube........with a little help from a screwdriver
This is a close up of the hard and caked on grease which I found the gun to be filled with.
Once I had stripped the gun completely, using thinners, I cleaned off all the old grease and oils, and made sure the tube was spotlessly clean.
Then using my Dremel tool with a fine grinding head, I very carefully went around all the rough edges on the holes and slots in the tube, using a polishing mop, I shone the piston itself up and smoothed the whole action in general.
When everything was spotlessly clean, I began re-assembling the rifle after very lightly greasing the contact points. It was at this point that I stopped taking photos, but I forgot the most important one when it comes to turning the gun from a Twanger into a Thudder.....
When the spring goes into the piston, there is a gap between the two, when fired, the spring is allowed too much freedom in my opinion so...My little trick which I've used on several springers now is this; I wrap a piece of slightly greased dishcloth around the spring, the length of the piston, this greased cloth clings to the spring and dampens down the noise/vibration/recoil......have a look at the dishcloth in question....
The strip I cut off is about 5" x 2 1/2". This type of cloth is fibrous and almost impossible to tear with your bare hands, I can only cut it with scissors or a sharp Stanley knife. I lightly grease it both sides then squeeze it around the end of the spring that goes into the piston, snug as a bug in a rug!
The re-assembly of the rifle is simply a reverse of the dismantling, go slowly, take your time and everything will be fine. The only little problems I had myself were the 2 very thin shims between the breach and the tube, they just wouldn't stop in place! It was a case of jiggling them about until they were both in line over the hole...the second little problem was getting the trigger assembly back into the slot whilst holding the safety catch and spring in place...again.....jiggery pokery works well!
Have fun,
Nige
