I had added this to another post and decided to break it out.

Not sure if anyone remembers but several months ago I was complaining about how badly my TX200 was shooting, well I found out what was wrong.

I got a wild bug last night around midnight, took apart my TX200 MKiii that was giving me problems and found an unholy mess inside The spring lubricant was almost gummed up hard, the rear guide, which is naval brass, had chatter marks in it with brass shavings everywhere, the piston seal had shattered spewing some kind of plastic all over the internals of the piston. So I was up till 3am cleaning and salvaging what I could. My bad I guess, I'm no springer expert, I should have had this apart every 5 years to give it a good once over. If I had done that, this would have never happened. Now that my fear of taking apart springers has been abated, my other springers are getting torn down and cleaned up asap!

Couple of questions for those willing and knowledgeable.

How straight should a spring be? Perfectly straight? Is a slight and I mean slight wobble ok?
How tight should the rear spring guide be when fitted into the spring?
Is molybdenum disulphide paste (60%) good enough for spring lube, should any additional silicone lube be added to dampen the spring?
Can anyone recommend a place to purchase a piston seal for a TX200 MKiii?
Any other tips welcome.

Thanks!

Live and learn I guess, shame on me.
Sal

Hi Sal,

A steel guide would be much better.

The spring will be kept straight by the guide inside, and interior of the tube outside of spring.

If you do replace a guide, make sure it has clearance when compressed. Some springs get smaller inside when compressed.

Just the things I thought might help.

Gary

Thanks Gary, I've done some looking around and NO ONE makes naval brass rear spring guides anymore, must have been a fad or something 16 years ago when I got this gun. Steel makes much more sense.

Hey sal,

I honestly don't know much about springers... I have a couple I shoot, but have never taken them apart...prolly should to clean em up a little.. We have a guy that comes in our tool and die shop time to time, we've known him for years... His name is Tom...he is the owner of vortek products, they have just about anything for springers at great pricing, they also make a lot of custom components to upgrade and give your springer more power. I did a quick search ,and the have tune up kits for the TX200.. They are doing some pretty innovated stuff with springers. Hope this helps, they have a great web site! With all kinds of tune kits...

vortekproducts.com
I get those bugs some times too, when I was a kid I would get a new toy and a couple days later it would all be taken apart lol...
Hope your tune works out well.

Matt

as matt said....vortek products is a good tune kit, and jim maccari of air rifle headquarters is also a go to. jim has several different kits to choose from, ranging from 12ft lb, up to high output kits, and they are top notch

I would have suggested Jim. I'm out of the loop. Didn't know if he was still doing this. I know he used to be considered the top drawer for springers.

Thanks everyone! I appreciate the feedback.

I took apart my .20 HW97K today and to my relief, 16 years later, it's in good shape inside. I did myself a favor and cleaned it all out and re-lubed, taking care to get no lube on the front side of the piston seal. Next up the .177 RWS 34, that sucker is my first springer circa 1990, can't wait to see what's inside that one! I should have taken pictures but there was such a mess of lubes I didn't dare pickup the phone and my assistants were on the accursed Xbox go figure!