Saturday, February 27, 2010

BSA Meteor Disassembly, Part 2

On I go...

You can see the small setscrew that adjusts the trigger bears against that pin.

The front of the trigger blade and the screw. So you have to take the gun out of the stock to adjust the trigger?

Pushing out one pin.

But the trigger is still connected...

Pushing out another pin...

And it's still connected.

Final pin.

And out comes the trigger group.

Milling a tool to take up the spring load.

Just a notched tube.

Pushing it in.

Not far enough though...

Lengthen the notches.

Now push that pin out. Again, it looks like the pin on the Superstar.

Really a thing of beauty.

After all that, this is the amount of spring preload.

The spring and guide.

The guide and washer.

The piston.

I don't know what that yellow stack is...

An o-ringed piston head. Easy to replace.

The piston head fits into the piston via a slot... Looks a bit worn and the head was loose.

The piston head stem.

A steel washer and a stack of poorly punched yellow plastic washers, likely a replacement for what should be a rubber or leather washer.

Lots of washers. Well if you don't have a lathe...

The piston head.

Anyway I have to clean it up now, make a new washer for the piston head, lube and reassemble, then do the stock work...

8 comments:

Sandy said...

Very comnprehensive and interesting. I just wish it had been for a Mk2, as that's what's trigger I'm struggling with currently!

Felice Luftschein said...

Someday I hope to, BSAs are hard to come by here in the states.

andrew said...

I broke the stock on my BSA meteor .22 sometime ago at the bolt hole in the nose. it's been sitting, lonely, ever since.
Is there anyone that you know that sells Meteor stocks?
thanks
ac

Felice Luftschein said...

I'd try either JG airguns or Chambers gunmakers. Failing that try asking on one of the UK forums.
http://www.jgairguns.biz/
http://www.gunspares.co.uk/shopdisplaycategories.asp?id=23960&cat=Airgun+spares

Chris Booth said...

Super description of how to strip and rebuild a Mk V meteor. Followed it to the letter and renovated a broken one. One question concerning the trigger adjustment: how do you make it lighter. Is the trigger screw turned clock or anticlockwise? Been a little reluctant to continually take the action out of the stock to adjust before I know exactly what to do.

Chris Booth

Nick Carter said...

I never bothered to adjust it, but if you look at the first pic you can see how the screw bears against that pin and changes the engagement.
Nick

Unknown said...

You were correct in your assumption that there should be a rubber washer under the piston head. The Meteor was BSA's entry level airgun, and was relatively low power, though some UK tuners managed to tweak them to around 11 ft/lbs. Their Achilles heel is the breech block jaws, they wear, or bend outwards, due to the stock screws pulling on them. A good modification would be to find a way to move these back and use a bracket or tap them into the cylinder near the transfer port, but this would compromise the originality of the rifle if you were a collector. If your barrel does wobble from side to side, remove the barrel and try closing the jaws by some gentle taps with a hammer - it worked on mine :)

The old BSAs all seemed to use the same barrels, I actually fitted a 10" .22 barrel from a Lightning to my Meteor, and it's possible to get a .25, ideal for rats in the barn.

Incidentally, another good source for British airgun parts is John Knibbs, check out his website.

Happy shooting.

Unknown said...

A great job on a classic gun, well explained with pics as well. Thank you for posting. Chris Booth, my trigger is very hard, I have stoned & polished the sears but that has made very little difference, I'm resigned to it just being a heavy trigger, the trouble in my grandson finds it difficult to shoot accurately. Malc Tulloch.