Welp, my springer virginity is gone, installed a vortek kit today......

[holdan74]

Went smooth, he makes a good kit, even called him with a quick question he was cool and explained to me what i needed to do. I will say, make sure your spring compressor works good, i ended up compressing by hand, not too bad as im am a big guy, but damn ill never do it that way again, i prefer the finesse route with things, smooth and accurate.

Lastly, the barrel was a bitch to align with the tube, i ended up putting an allen key in the other side and compressing the barrel back just enough to slide the bolt in, then everything went fine, and its shooting good, no twang or vibration, tho a solid kick my accuracy is much better now(chopped a few weeds down at 18 yards iron sights). Im guessing the barrel seal was causing the tiny gap.

Either way, the next time will go 1000% more smooth, its the same as building your first computer, a bit of a pain, but after a few youre an expert at assembly.

 

[intenseaty22]

I was literally terrified the first time I even thought about doing it. It’s so much easier after the first time! Congrats on a job well done. 

 

[holdan74]

I got some disealing but thats normal i guess, my chrony will be here tomorrow but that phone app chrony is showing 720fps with a 14.3 pellet so i dont think im disealing hardcore, ill run a hundred shots through it first. i maybe have handled the piston seal with a greasy hand lol......

 

[Yo]

Glad to see you didn't get her knocked up on the first time. Yo!

 

[intenseaty22]

If it’s disealing you will know it, damn thing sounds like a rim fire .22 long rifle. 

 

[holdan74]

ok sounds good, but a question, whats the smoothest way to get the barrel bolt back in, as i said i had to compress the barrel against the cylinder just to be able to tap in the bolt.

 

[SteveV]

What gun are we talking about? Never had to remove a barrel to install a kit in a springer - always have removed the trigger group to install new spring & guide set up.

Removing the barrel is definitely the hard way imho

 

[Michigander]

Aligning the barrel assembly with the fork while depressing the detent can be a challenge, especially if there are also shims on either side that also have to be aligned with the bolt holes. What is needed is a slave pin to hold everything in place while the bolt is fed through. The slave pin gets pushed out as the bolt is pushed in. The slave pin should have a tapered end that gets fed in first, followed by a cylindrical section the same size or just a little smaller than the bolt diameter. I will make one next time I work on a break barrel, as the last time was a real pain.

 

[holdan74]

Ahh good idea about hte pin. And sorry its a break barrel hw95

 

[Michigander]

In that case the slave pin can be no bigger than the ID of the threads in the RH side of the fork. On my R9/HW95 they measure about 0.242". A common hardware store 1/4-20 bolt has a shank that is usually undersize and might work after a little filing to create a tapered end followed by polishing, both done after chucking the shank in a drill.

Glad your Vortek upgrade worked out. I did the same to my R9 and it made a big improvement in smoothness during both cocking and firing.