Gee Tee
11-21-2007, 03:26 AM
Managed to fit a Trinity front block to my Empire last night. It's been a bit of a saga caused by a seized blanking screw on the original Empire block, that was stopping me fitting a LP gauge.
The Trinity block had a tapped hole for a retaining screw, where as the standard Empire one was a grub screw type. I've managed to put a small countersink in the top of the thread & the grub screw seems to hold it in place ok. Now I've got a working LP gauge I'm pretty sure I've been running it way low, as it was only showing about 40psi on it's original setting. Now set it to run about 65-70psi which I've heard is a good starting point.
While swapping the front block I treated the gun to a strip, clean & fresh seals etc. Found the poppit seal badly nicked - although the Empire wasn't leaking? See what you mean about that seal being a PITA to swap, but got it on in the end. Was dreading gassing it up to find it leaking but chuffed to say it was hiss free - not bad for a first attempt.
One thing that concerns me is the special seal on the ram sleeve. It's on the poppet side of the exhaust valve drilling, and a [ section (like an open square) rather than a regular o-ring. I popped this off without noticing which way it was installed, and at present have the open side of the [ facing the front block. It's sealed ok so I may have guessed right... but it would be nice to know ;)
The other thing is this seal isn't covered by my spares kit. Are they available & if not can a regular o-ring be used?
The Trinity block had a tapped hole for a retaining screw, where as the standard Empire one was a grub screw type. I've managed to put a small countersink in the top of the thread & the grub screw seems to hold it in place ok. Now I've got a working LP gauge I'm pretty sure I've been running it way low, as it was only showing about 40psi on it's original setting. Now set it to run about 65-70psi which I've heard is a good starting point.
While swapping the front block I treated the gun to a strip, clean & fresh seals etc. Found the poppit seal badly nicked - although the Empire wasn't leaking? See what you mean about that seal being a PITA to swap, but got it on in the end. Was dreading gassing it up to find it leaking but chuffed to say it was hiss free - not bad for a first attempt.
One thing that concerns me is the special seal on the ram sleeve. It's on the poppet side of the exhaust valve drilling, and a [ section (like an open square) rather than a regular o-ring. I popped this off without noticing which way it was installed, and at present have the open side of the [ facing the front block. It's sealed ok so I may have guessed right... but it would be nice to know ;)
The other thing is this seal isn't covered by my spares kit. Are they available & if not can a regular o-ring be used?