Sorting Out An Old El Gamo Cadet

[WoodsmanJim 160]

Maybe it's just 'cos my first born son is about to drop any day, but I suddenly got all nostalgic about an ancient old little rifle that's been knocking about in my garage for years. I had it when I was little and when my nephew was visiting on the bank holiday I thought it might be nice for him to have an introduction to rifle shooting. He was very excited as any 6 yr old would be the first time they get to shoot "a real gun"!!

 

Things didn't work out however, after my initial test shot just to check everything still worked and wasn't going to explode in the little chaps face, it lost all ability to push a pellet out the barrel. The first shot flew fine (the zero was six inches out, but after 20 years of total neglect and several house moves I didn't think that was bad! ) but after that it just made a sort of "humpf" as the air in the cylinder compressed, but then a hiss as it went somewhere other than down the barrel. I figure either the transfer port is blocked or something fairly major has disintegrated leading to a leak somewhere.

 

So I decided that as I've never stripped an air rifle (done a few SA80's though ) and this is probably the simplest rifle known to man, I'd have a go. How hard can it be right?!!

 

Well here it is "exploded":

 

 

 

It's had a hard life :

 

 

 

 

Well, as I said, I've got all a bit nostalgic over this little gun and decided to fully refurbish it as best as I can so I can teach my nephew to shoot with it and then my son once he's old enough.

 

Jobs are: a thorough deep clean of all parts, replace the broken trigger return spring, sort out the rust on the barrel, breech and tube as best as I can, bit of a tidy up/ polish to all the internals, maybe a new spring, re- oil everything and reassemble. I'll then pick up a better scope that will help him with target acquisition. The poor lad could barely see a thing through the current 4x20 scope. A nice modern, cheap, light-ish 4x30 should be a lot better.

 

The gun itself is probably technically not worth even the cost of a tin of quality gun oil, but that's not the point is it?! I know you guys will understand the satisfaction of learning as you go by doing it yourself, and then having something to use with your kids knowing it's safe, serviceable and you can say "I did that" . Besides, time with the kids is worth every penny in my book.

 

First job is to build a spring compressor and some kind of adapter to slide down the sides of the trigger block and compress the spring without touching the trigger block its self so that it can be slid forwards and removed.

 

 

 

Any tips or advice is gratefully received! If folks are interested I'll continue the thread with updates as I go.

 

Jim

Edited April 2, 2013 by WoodsmanJim

[Phantom 631]

Try Gunspares.co.UK for diagram and parts

 

Tony

[Skot Ruthless Teale 1,701]

"looks like its had a hard life" , id say it looks like its had a fake tan!! lol

 

and you probably wont need a spring compressor mate...

 

Good luck and yeah keep us updated, and if you fcuk it up at least it wont get any worse than it is already!

[Phantom 631]

Yeah, 5 to 7 ft/lbs is my gues

 

oh here http://www.gunspares.co.uk/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=24263&cat=Gamo+Cadet

 

Tony

[bigmac 97kt 13,780]

Iv just dun one mate the spring is easy to compress just use a flat head screw driver to push the spring down and then tap the trigger housing forword then pull it out when you put it back in just do the same but once you have cleaned the housing up it shud go back in with out a tap when you compress the spring slide the screw driver down the side of the trigger housing it dus not need to be compressed very far to release the housing hope this helps mate atvbmac

[WoodsmanJim 160]

Nice one! Thanks guys! :-)

 

Jim

[WoodsmanJim 160]

Phantom/ Tony - thanks for the Chambers tip. Just ordered and trigger spring and piston seal kit.

Bigmac - that tip about the screwdriver worked a treat! bit fiddly supporting the tube, pushing on the main spring and getting the trigger block out. could've done with 3 hands!

 

So here it is with the spring, guide and piston out:

 

That spring's looking a bit banana like!!

it seems as if the wonky spring has been putting uneven pressure on the piston and one side and the seal looks like this:

 

not good! you can't quite make it out but there are holes right through it!

 

Piston:

 

it looks like one side of the seal has been worn off and spread down one side of the piston!

nothing that a bit of wire wool and dremel action won't clean up hmmmmm.

 

So as I said, new seal is on it's way. As for the main spring, I've done a bit of digging and it seems a Titan XS No.7 spring should fit. Although it's listed as being 255mm long and my spring measures 193mm.

Is it possible that my spring has just gone weak and is much shorter than originally? or will a 255mm spring compress down enough to fit without issue? elsewhere online there's a suggestion that it's need the spring guide shortening a bit to get it to fit. Any thoughts folks?

Apparently TX200 piston seals will fit too, but they look a different shape on the mounting face (same OD though). I went standard seal just for ease.

 

Thanks again for the help guys, I love this forum!

 

Jim

[WoodsmanJim 160]

This is a better pic of the side of the piston with the leather spread down the side.

 

and the horrid banana-spring

 

Jim

[Skot Ruthless Teale 1,701]

beautiful ..

 

 

 

NOT !!!

good luck mate, going to need quite a lot of elbowgrease to get that piston shiny again!!

[Phantom 631]

No worries Jim,

Most of us are here to help

 

Be nice to see her fully restored

 

Tony

 

If this posts 3 times is the sh!te internet on my phone

[WoodsmanJim 160]

Hi all,

 

well I've finally found time to make some progress on this. I've accumulated all the bits required and was just waiting for the time. I was passing my local gunsmaith's place the other day and popped in for some advice. he offered to stick the piston in his lathe to clean it up and shove is cleaning mops down the comp tube too, only took him 10 mins and he did it for beer money, he's a good egg!

Well I soaked the new leather seal in neatsfoot oil last night and after a bit of wiggling it went into the tube well and makes a great seal. I'm afraid I didn't get any pics of this, Sorry!

 

So now it comes to the spring. I picked up a Titan XS No.7 as my research showed this should fit. There's certainly enough room between the spring guide backplate and the back of the piston head for it to be compressed. However, it's very long!! Now I now it'd be longer than the old one as the old one was tired and bent, but this is going to give me a LOT of pre-load even if I can to compress into the tube. (might have to make a spring compressor after all).

 

Comparison:

 

 

Old spring in situ:

 

You can see it only requires about an inch and a half of preload to fit the trigger block in.

 

New spring:

 

Am I going to have trim this spring or is that much preload ok??

 

There was me thinking I'd have this back together in no time today and could try it out tonight!!

 

Jim

[Phantom 631]

If you have too much preload it wont be possible to cock it as the sear wont be able to engage.

I tried in my youth to stretch a spring for an ASI Rangemaster that had the same trigger mech as that one.

It worked for a few shots, then snapped the spring that returned the trigger

 

Tony

[Marksman 934]

I think you may have been mis-informed on the spring mate....

The Titan ones anyway from my experience always seem to be that bit longer.... not that its not easily solved by cutting it down

 

Darryl

[WoodsmanJim 160]

Thanks guys, I think I'll chop it down. Having watch Davy's great vid from the other day I'm feeling retty confident about doing it.

 

Daryl, I was told the Cadet and Commando have interchangeable springs and the No.7 lists the commando on it's packet. I guess this isn't quite the case though. I did measure the ID of the piston, the distance between the back of the piston head and the spring guide back plate (with the shear engaged), the spring guide and everything else. I also got the specs for the spring before I ordered it, number of coils, wire thickness, OD, ID etc.. In theory the spring fits when compressed. It's just so long and stiff that getting it to cock would be almost impossible I'm guessing even if I could get it back together!

Like you say it'll cut down easy enough and I'll probably cut it down to about 2" of preload as it's only for garden plinking for the kids. Doesn't need to be the most amazing rifle ever, it just has to work!

 

Thanks again for the replies guys, don't know what I'd do without this forum sometimes! !

 

Jim

Edited May 18, 2013 by WoodsmanJim

[webster 90]

got your work cut out for you with that bad boy but looks fun , if you want it i have an an edgar brothers 4x32 mm scope sitting doing sweet FA would be glad to send it to help the young ones get into shooting , pm me your address and i will get it off asap . free of charge by the way