Spring/Piston Two year old TX200 MK3 (TBT kit) makeover project!

[Danman]

After tearing into my Brk Ghost last night with decent success and having my Saturday wide open, i tore into my .177 AirArms TX200 today. The magic is long long gone and it has been languishing for some time now.
It started with a drop in power, then a more aggressive shot cycle/recoil with a noticeable 'bark', and then finally this past summer a loss of accuracy.
To top it all off the trigger has never been to my liking and recently...its gotten terrible!

Power loss you say? Yip, when new it was knocking out 14-15fpe pushing a 8.44 jsb to 880fps and a 7.9 crosman beyond 920. Last chrono session.....800fps with that same crosman 7.9gr pellet.

Loss of accuracy you say? Once it was warmed up (scrap that first group lol) it would usually print 3/4in groups @ 30Y with 10 of any of its favorite pellets with just the odd flier. Now i might get one 3/4in group in a session, and fliers are frequent....so armed with a complete TBT tune kit, let's dig in!

 

[Danman]

What drew me to the TX200 was how simply designed, well built, and easy to service it is. Right behind that was its walnut and steel gorgeousness, left hand stock option, and many winning streaks. Many competitions have been won with it and it is as current now as it was 30-some-odd years ago.

So first things first....if you find yourself the owner of a not-so-new spring gun, and it is no longer shooting as it once did & performance has dropped, do not delay, get it serviced, or better yet do it yourself, a quick clean and some new grease may be all it needs
What i'm about to show you...is not overly pleasant
Metal shards in the internals? Check!
Burned and dry piston seal? Check!
Ovaled-out trigger blade mount hole? Check!
Yip that's metal on my gloves, it was everywhere in the grease, the trigger sears, etc.
The trigger itself has the most side to side play of any trigger I own, no surprise here.
The piston seal....the moment i pulled the compression tube out I was greeted by a burnt smell and some tough carbon type deposits on my poor piston seal.

 

[Danman]

Unfortunately I dont have a piston seal as I didn't think I needed one, and the trigger dilemma is worse than I thought (plan was to drill it out and install a thicker pin/bushing) but there is NOT alot of metal there to drill out, and its mighty soft. A quick check online for a TX piston seal and there is nothing avaliable in Canada!!
So I ordered 2 piston seals from Vortek @ $34/USD and $45/USD to ship to my glorious country.
Well my dad stepped up to the plate again, and is planning to make a new trigger blade, and I have at least a week's wait on my new seals.
Now comes my questions, Has anyone used Vortek piston seals? On a TX200? Any thoughts?
Where do you think that metal came from? I've no idea! Spring itself is ok...
And lastly has anyone used a tune kit from Timbum Tuning UK?
Some final pics for tonight...the power stack OEM AirArms left, TBT on right, (this is the full power kit, not Sub-12). Then my trigger sears - all looking ok, I may just polish ever so slightly.
Last pic is of the wear on the rear right side of the trigger blade from (only 2 years) of medium use.

 

[FL22]

@Danman this is making me want to take my HW95 apart…. But I will refrain, I already have 2 Airguns that need repair. I don’t want another .

Nothing is irreparably damaged right? just normal and necessary rebuild, although that trigger wear seems odd.

Good luck with it .

 

[Danman]

@Danman this is making me want to take my HW95 apart…. But I will refrain, I already have 2 Airguns that need repair. I don’t want another .

Nothing is irreparably damaged right? just normal and necessary rebuild, although that trigger wear seems odd.

Good luck with it .

Haha, the only reason I have 2 guns torn apart at the same time is bc I bought the HW50 last month!
The metal in the internals is kinda like break-in oil in your engine i suppose?....somewhat expected but dont delay in getting it changed out and relubed. Seeing this i will be opening up my HW50 well before 2 years of shooting. AirArms did a good job greasing it, no complaints there.

The piston situation kinda sucks, but im this far i may as well replace it too, the face has some raised ragged chunks coming off.

The trigger situation is kind of a let down though, thought it would be an easy fix. I checked out the setback triggers Rowan Engineering makes as a replacement but people complain they fit loose as well, and....I dont think it could be anymore "setback" than the stock one lol. It literally hits the trigger gaurd the second stage is that creepy! My S510 trigger is worlds better.

 

[Dogowski]

What drew me to the TX200 was how simply designed, well built, and easy to service it is. Right behind that was its walnut and steel gorgeousness, left hand stock option, and many winning streaks. Many competitions have been won with it and it is as current now as it was 30-some-odd years ago.

So first things first....if you find yourself the owner of a not-so-new spring gun, and it is no longer shooting as it once did & performance has dropped, do not delay, get it serviced, or better yet do it yourself, a quick clean and some new grease may be all it needs
What i'm about to show you...is not overly pleasant
Metal shards in the internals? Check!
Burned and dry piston seal? Check!
Ovaled-out trigger blade mount hole? Check!
Yip that's metal on my gloves, it was everywhere in the grease, the trigger sears, etc.
The trigger itself has the most side to side play of any trigger I own, no surprise here.
The piston seal....the moment i pulled the compression tube out I was greeted by a burnt smell and some tough carbon type deposits on my poor piston seal.

What drew me to the TX200 was how simply designed, well built, and easy to service it is. Right behind that was its walnut and steel gorgeousness, left hand stock option, and many winning streaks. Many competitions have been won with it and it is as current now as it was 30-some-odd years ago.

So first things first....if you find yourself the owner of a not-so-new spring gun, and it is no longer shooting as it once did & performance has dropped, do not delay, get it serviced, or better yet do it yourself, a quick clean and some new grease may be all it needs
What i'm about to show you...is not overly pleasant
Metal shards in the internals? Check!
Burned and dry piston seal? Check!
Ovaled-out trigger blade mount hole? Check!
Yip that's metal on my gloves, it was everywhere in the grease, the trigger sears, etc.
The trigger itself has the most side to side play of any trigger I own, no surprise here.
The piston seal....the moment i pulled the compression tube out I was greeted by a burnt smell and some tough carbon type deposits on my poor piston seal.

She needs a lot of love n care brother! Be like new in no time.

 

[Scriv]

Interested to see the outcome.

 

[Danman]

Vortek seals arrived last week, and the new custom trigger blade is here.....the rebuild continues!

Some helpful info for TX owners:
-The piston seal is tough but it will slip on without any hot water or special tools, just a small dab of silicone grease on the inner lip and some muscle!

-The trigger sear screws CANNOT be backed out all the way but must be threaded all the way in and installed onto the new blade vise-versa.

- When installing your scope rings DO NOT send the pin or set screw all the way home with force. The holes are not blind and you will damage your trigger block if you do. My tip for the roll pin style (sportsmatch rings) is to set them up on a bench and fit them on the gun till its a nice fit....do not hammer that stop pin home while on the gun lol.

 

[Danman]

All trigger sears were polished with Autosol and I took the edge off anything that offended me inside the piston tube area, I also polished the new spring ends from the TBT kit. I dont know if the AA spring has taken a set (2 years old) and that is cause for the 100fps drop but the TBT one is about an inch longer currently. The only thing i did not take apart was the piston chamber nut, but I did hit it with some air to see if there was any noticeable leaks..
Sear lube of choice? A light rust-preventative oil is best like 3in1....I went with what I had on hand, just a light coat.
If you have messed with your trigger screws as i did....Before slapping your trigger block into the gun and praying it will cock/decock, not be too loose, or jam, or fire out a pellet without a trigger pull, bench test it first! To do so, use a punch and push down on the sear as the piston latch rod would do when you pull the underlever. Ya my trigger 'fired' as soon as I popped the safety off After adjusting I got it to release if I just slapped the back of the block. After some more adjustments I got it to hold safely till I released it. Moving on.

 

[Jaabaa]

This is great Danman , what a good view of what you did.
Thanks
But ya, hold on the 95 till this is over, getting hard to keep up...

 

[Scriv]

Keep it up, and you will convince me to keep mine.

 

[Danman]

Well she's all back together, and I shot the Ham offhand 10Y competition with it today.
Mixed feelings going on here....
First the good:
The Booinggg it used to make when fired is all gone!
That same recoil is still there but it is more straight-back and doesn't twist the gun sideways now.
It was printing very small 10Y groups with the 8.44gr pellets after just a few first shots, and only dieseled the first couple.
The new trigger has no side slop, and after some time adjusting, its breaking around 6.5/7ounces! (I normally would think that's too light, but its now very predictable....it was previously twice as heavy but I had pulled many shots with it!) For the first time I can finally say Its better than my HW50 trigger.

Now the bad:
The sun was shining but man was it cold today! So I set up my Prochrono and fired five 8.44gr jsbs over it. When it was new those exact pellets where flying out about 860-880fps. FPS I got was 797, 799, 802, 801, & 800. Very consistent but.....still slow?!
Great....the only thing I didn't inspect/replace was that piston chamber nut o-ring I recall @Pesty3782 had a similar loss of power in his TX and after trying everything else, thats what it ended up being.

Hmmmm, well it could be that it was -10 outside today? I've also read that vortek piston seals will, over time seal better and after a good bunch of shots fps can increase?
Do i leave it alone now and just shoot it??..or tear it all apart again (maybe 15 minutes) plus a clean/regrease of the piston tube after inspection of that last o-ring. I don't know if I can live while not knowing
Here some beauty shots with its new solid brass trigger vs the Hw50 trigger.

 

[Scriv]

That's a tough call. The consistency would be very appealing to me.

 

[Danman]

That's a tough call. The consistency would be very appealing to me.

Agreed....I believe i will leave it alone, very happy with the consistency for sure! I did check the nut if it was loose and it didn't budge, my leak test was with shop air but I didnt submerge the piston chamber in water or anything....definitely not a scientific test lol.
I don't believe a 2 year old TX with just a few tins through it could have wrecked that o-ring already, and would it give such consistent speeds it is was bad? I think not.
I'll keep it in the back of my mind as I pursue those 3/4 inch 10shot groups @ 30Y that it used to shoot so well.
Am hoping the low cold shot issue goes away now too....we will see.
That o-ring is not included in the "complete" rebuild kit, but the fact that you can buy the compression tube separately tells me something....
I'll be updating this thread as I put it through its paces!

 

[Scriv]

Agreed....I believe i will leave it alone, very happy with the consistency for sure! I did check the nut if it was loose and it didn't budge, my leak test was with shop air but I didnt submerge the piston chamber in water or anything....definitely not a scientific test lol.
I don't believe a 2 year old TX with just a few tins through it could have wrecked that o-ring already, and would it give such consistent speeds it is was bad? I think not.
I'll keep it in the back of my mind as I pursue those 3/4 inch 10shot groups @ 30Y that it used to shoot so well.
Am hoping the low cold shot issue goes away now too....we will see.
That o-ring is not included in the "complete" rebuild kit, but the fact that you can buy the compression tube separately tells me something....
I'll be updating this thread as I put it through its paces!

I have a tendency to think that your true speeds will not come until the rifle settles in a bit. On the other hand, it's real consistent already. Admittedly, I have not studied springer behavior that much beyond "oh, it likes this pellet". I've chronographed my TX200, and it was getting 879 average, and an SD of 2.3 with the Air arms 8.44. it dropped nearly 30 fps just shooting the same weight QYS, and SD doubled. Accuracy was nearly the same, maybe even a nod to the QYS.

 

[Danman]

Well I didn't love the new trigger, still way too set-back so we got another one made up, which also was a fail.
3rd times the charm apparently, and after some adjusting i got it to 10oz and breaking cleanly again.
This winter has been long and cold here....dying to get out and shoot further than 10Yards with it lol.
The recoil is much smoother now - just straight back without twisting.

 

[Scriv]

Well I didn't love the new trigger, still way too set-back so we got another one made up, which also was a fail.
3rd times the charm apparently, and after some adjusting i got it to 10oz and breaking cleanly again.
This winter has been long and cold here....dying to get out and shoot further than 10Yards with it lol.
The recoil is much smoother now - just straight back without twisting.

Looking good. Can't wait for you to get it outside.

 

[Scriv]

I have a tendency to think that your true speeds will not come until the rifle settles in a bit. On the other hand, it's real consistent already. Admittedly, I have not studied springer behavior that much beyond "oh, it likes this pellet". I've chronographed my TX200, and it was getting 879 average, and an SD of 2.3 with the Air arms 8.44. it dropped nearly 30 fps just shooting the same weight QYS, and SD doubled. Accuracy was nearly the same, maybe even a nod to the QYS.

I've got a few more pellets onboard now. Reading this I think that more testing is in order.

 

[Hoppalong Doc]

I believe that more testing is due all around for my troublesome TX200. It is finally coming apart (intentionally that is) tomorrow. I received an email from the tech at Air Venturi yesterday with a drawn out diagram for me to follow. This poor tech is wise enough, after dealing with me several times, to annotate implicitly his repair instructions. So tomorrow, bright and early, I'll sit in my gazebo work station, ready to strip down my TX200 and initiate the repair once and for all time. I hear you scoffers, but tomorrow is the day! I shall complete this repair once and for all time. Please be gentle with me, my friends. I'll have my "return to Air Venturi " lable ready to print and return via PirateShiping. I do so hope for a successful repair. Tomorrow is the day.

 

[Scriv]

Good luck.