Benjamin 3030 Reassembly, Part 1

Putting it back together…for now…

Drilling the exhaust seal.

Turning the OD.

Facing.

Boring for the screw.

Cut off, next to old seal.

Not too happy with the face.

Inserted a new o-ring in the valve body.

Reassembling, used a spent CO2 cart to push the innards in.

All together. It works…but not well. The valve is staying open far too long, leading to that dreaded “braaap” sound and only yielding 10 shots per cartridge.

I forgot the screen,maybe that’s the problem? Nope. Didn’t change how it behaved when I replaced it.

The barrel comes back pretty far to knock open the valve. Perhaps I’ll try a shim between the hammer and valve and see if reducing that depth helps.

Also the valve seat is worn, probably a good idea to clean it up.

The holes the piercing pin makes in the cartridges is pretty large, I think reducing the hammer strike will also limit that hole, which could be good or may not matter. It’s possible the pin is sticking in the cartridge as well.

The main spring has a rough end. Maybe it’s a replacement?

I substituted a shorter spring. It behaved exactly the same. So at least I know it isn’t that?

I’m wondering if an even shorter spring would be good as that’s how much preload there is – the bolt hole still isn’t visible in the slot. But I think that the valve face could be the culprit. We’ll see.