Feinwerkbau 124 sport stripdown
After I received my 124 sport, I realised that it would need a strip due to a dry creaky noise when cocking and that more than likely the piston seal would need replacing and possibly the spring as well. Here is a journal, mainly in pictures of my very first attempt at taking a spring powered air rifle apart.
I started off by making the spring compressor. I simply used what pieces of wood I had available and I took no measurements except for the diameter of the action, so that I could carve a hole of a similar size then line it with foam for protection. If you look closely at the pictures, you'll see exactly how the compressor was put together.
My biggest difficulty was in obtaining a 'G' clamp to cannibalize, although I tried many hardware and even pound type shops, the biggest I could find was a 3" clamp, utterly useless. The closest I could find is the one in the picture, it was made from flat strip which was bent into a 'C' shape and cost all of 1.75 euros. I quickly cut off the bottom of the clamp, drilled 3 holes and attached it to the plank of wood. The quality of the clamp is/was crap and when I can find a proper clamp, I'll change it, although it did the job, just.
The bright orange thing you can see on the clamp is a bit of plastic I hot glued onto the end in case the screw came through under the pressure of the spring, it worked in a fashion but needs replacing if I'm going to take the spring out again. I started the job by securing the rifle into the compressor blocks and screwing in the clamp until it was putting a pressure onto the end cap. I didn't have to worry about the 2 safety lugs that should have been there, my gun doesn't have any due to Parcelforce dropping the parcel onto it's end and breaking them off. I then unscrewed the 11mm bolt and removed it (Gingerly)
As you can see in the 2 pics above, as I gradually unscrewed the clamp and the trigger block started to appear, I wrapped a cable tie behind the trigger and 2 in front as it slowly emerged.
After removing the trigger unit and the spring as seen in the 1st and 2nd photo above, I took the barrel off by removing the locking screw and bolt. This allows the cocking lever to disengage from the sledge, with a little wiggling about, the sledge will fall out. Now the piston itself is free to slide out, as seen in the 5th photo above. Photo's 6, 7 & 8 are views of the piston and seal.
_small.jpg)
As my aim in this exercise was to get rid of the dry squeak when cocking the gun, I decided to clean all the internals and reassemble it using oils and grease where needed. As you can see in the above 4 photos, it can be quite a messy job, but everything went well and it all went back together fine. The result is a much quieter 'thud' sound with no twanging or vibration.
Having read as much advice as I could find, I now know that the original seal is a tight fit in the bore, probably exaggerating the squeaky noise and causing me to do the strip in the first place. The rifle has been untouched in it's 26 year history so I believe the piston seal has either gone out of shape, or hardened to the point of being a liability. I intend updating this write-up as soon as I do another strip. Thanks for looking in and a big thank you to Ian and Ray (I.J. & Raygun) for all your help. Cheers, Nige
_________________________________________
I have now stripped the rifle 3 times for various reasons, she now shoots like a dream, sounds superb and is as accurate as any other springer I've seen.
I fitted a Macarri 'Old School' kit on the last strip but didn't shorten the spacer as we are allowed 18ft/lbs in Spain, the difference this has made to the lock time and general operation of the rifle is well worth the time and money!
.jpg)
