ARTEMIS P15 Fill Port Air Leak [Update: FIXED! Thank You Guys!]

Jump to latest Follow Reply
DirtyDovi

DirtyDovi

Member
Dec 7, 2018
1,355
51
Upstate New York
911, Help, Mayday, Houston - We Have A Catastrophic Failure! 

[Artemis P15 .22 cal]
I don't know how or why, but the air cylinder just started leaking air out of the fill-probe-hole! 
The gun has been working absolutely flawlessly, the past 2 days it obviously hasn't even been fired.. 
[I have had the rifle in two pieces, while I worked on painting the stock]

This morning, I wanted to test out the new magazines, so I figured I'd top off the air pressure.. 
As soon as I started filling the cylinder, I could hear air hissing.. 
I stopped, heard air at the front.. Checked, and sure enough.. Air was escaping from the fill port hole.. 

I'm not familiar with the air-cylinder on these, so I did two things.. 
I tried to spin the gauge with my fingers - just to check to see if it had become loose.. 
And.. 
I slid an allen key through the filler probe hole to see if maybe I could spin it / snug it up..
Nope & Nope. 
I cocked and fired the gun a few times, thinking that maybe something would reset / re-seat.. Nope.. 

Not being familiar with the air cylinder internals, I figured I needed to ask how/where I should start.. 
O-ring failure? Regulator failure? I-Are-Lost..

And now I'm at work, so I figured it would be a good time to post this - Hoping for some advise / info. 

What a buzz-kill..

Thank you in advance for your advise/help/info/time!

Sam -

PS: Here's the link to my constantly updated P15 thread - This topic will be on there also: 
[Just in case anyone would like to check it out or keep up on progress/updates]
https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/artemis-p15-sight-in-and-10m-accuracy-test-video/page/5/#post-505792
 
there is a o ring inside the airtube where you put the filling probe, remove the air of the cylinder and split the airtube in 3 parts, valve, body, and where you fill, take a look at this part and you see a screw, behind this screw there is an oring, check if this screw is correctly screwed. if not try to give it some turn clockwise, do not tightened too much, the air from bottle or pump goes by this hole. if the screw is not correctly fitted air can escape by this hole.

Sorry for my english, isn't my first langage.



Thierry
 
  • Like
Reactions: TRIPP and DirtyDovi
Upvote 0
The fill port seal on these guns is disappointingly primitive given how good the engineering on the rest is. Simply an o-ring on a screw. The problem comes in that the screw has two flat surfaces machined into its bevel to allow for air to pass in when filling. The oring gets damaged on the sharp edges over time and will nearly always be the site of a leak (with the other common site being where the cylinder meets the action).

When replacing it, make sure to use a 90 shore oring as a 70 will rapidly extrude into this region and will be damaged and leaking again in no time.

Sorry it's a bit hard to explain but you'll see it's very basic as soon as you open it up. Fortunately once degassed, it's very easy to get to.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DirtyDovi and STO
Upvote 0
Thank You Guys! Very Much!

I'm at work, getting absolutely slammed today, so haven't been able to get back to you until' now. 
The info that all of you left is Fantastic, and all makes perfect sens.

I've been semi-familiar with how some of the different fill ports are engineered, 
so when it was explained, I got a mental image of what I'll be lookin' at here..

So to elaborate just a little:

The gun worked 100% I had actually taken a shot last night, but only 1 shot because air was low.. 
The cylinder pressure was about 125 bar or so. Same this morning..

I popped the fill probe in, began filling, and was watching the reg needle.. 
The needle climbed to about 200 bar when I 1st heard the hissing start..
I just thought that I needed to tighten the purge valve on my tank, so, I did that.. 
I also closed the tank valve, but, kept hearing hissing..
When the line pressure was purged, and fill probe removed, the hissing continued.. 

I did 2 things..
1 I put my hand over the gauge, and could feel air.. 
2 I put two fingers over each side of the fill probe tube, and could feel pressure building.. 

So, I confirmed that air was definitely escaping from inside of the fill-port..
[Through the very small air-entry-hole]

I figured it was probably a gasket - so that's when I cocked and fired the gun a few times.. 
I also tried keeping the gun cocked [charge handle in the rear position] then attempted refilling.. 

Nope.. nothing reset / re-seated.. It just kept leaking..

That's when I tried 'finger snugging' the gauge..

I could see the gauge needle slowly dropping in pressure further and further.. 

No matter what, it just didn't want to hold air.

I assumed a tear down would be in order..
But that's when I remembered how to adjust the fill-port position on the Crickets.. 
By using a bar through the port to carefully / slowly turn it...

I figured I'd try to see if it had just become loose, but, nope.. It seemed snug. 
I used Extremely Light Pressure, as to not mar or damage the port..

O-rings: Thanks for the info! Right now, all I have are the replacements that came with the rifle.. 
Yes, I could use those, but, again I just 'assumed'.. 
If the OEM gasket / o-ring failed already, do I really want to chance using another one? 

Or get a better quality one for the rebuild..

Damn.. I was JUST looking at Molykote lube on Amazon a few days ago, 
but held off since I really didn't think I'd have an immediate use for it.. *sigh* Go figure.. lol

There's the #55 and the #111

55 is recommended by some - Others say that 111 is better..
Not 100% sure which to order now - Maybe you guys have a recommendation?

I'll hold off on ordering lube til' I get a few responses..

Bummer.. Now the poor gun will be down for the count for a minimum of a few days..
Wheww! At least I have a back-up to shoot - to help me keep 'sane'.

Thanks you all again! You guys rock!

Sam -
 
Upvote 0
RC,

That #5 video that Mike posted.. 
When I clicked to check it out, it started about 1/4 of the way through, 
so apparently, I had already started to watch part of it.. 
Then I remembered seeing a few of his other vids when I was bingeing on P15 content on Youtube. haha

Very good / helpful stuff! Especially for those of us that just need a quick 'visual' before performing surgery..

Hey, best of luck with yours when you do the new setup! You'll have to keep us all posted as to how ya like it!

🙂 

Sam -
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back
Home
Forums
Resources
Menu