Air Gun Home :: View topic - My Used Quest (or, 'How NOT to improve a springer')

AirGunEric · Site Admin

This is my topic on how NOT to go about enhancing the power output of an already "detuned" springer- my used Crosman Quest.

First:

Do not jam some sort of huge spacer up inside the piston to increase spring pressure- and then add a secondary, compressed spring coil at the end of the spring down by the stop pin/butt of gun.

Note: Please excuse the picture quality- I need to go get a new digital camera (no "macro" or close-up mode right now).

Here is a Quest 1000 stock piston on the top, vs. the detuned Quest piston with a custom-inserted chunk of lead spacer- which, as you may notice is starting to expand outward past the edge of the piston window due to the hammering it gets and will soon enough allow pieces to escape, scratching the tube and destroying the seal:

Second:

Do not attempt to re-use a stock, low power spring from a detuned gun and increase power by "shimming it" to extreme levels.

The top spring is an aftermarket unit- either a genuine Maccari Tarantula or something equivalent. The lower spring is the stock, low output detuned spring:

Shimming the bejesus out of a short, detuned spring (or any spring for that matter) increases its preload and tightens it up once compressed. So, once the gun is cocked, the poor trigger needs to retain not the load for which it was originally intended- but what I would estimate based on the shimming what must be nearly double that amount. It was this that caused the gun to stop locking when it was cocked- meaning the gun was totally unusable. The trigger pin didn't break- but the extreme pressures put on it caused it to creep back on its mount (a bolt behind it) until it would no longer engage the piston at all. This was evidenced by the mis-installed position of the trigger on disassembly and the scrape mark on the trigger mount pad from the hold-down bolt.

Third and Fourth:

Don't take the gun apart a dozen times and let it shift around in the stock because you didn't tighten the hold-down screws completely- causing removal of blueing and a loose cocking action.

Do not think you can out-engineer the airgun manufacturer on safety precautions. Notice there is NO beartrap lever on this gun? I didn't remove it- it wasn't there when I disassembled it

Notice the scrape marks about the middle of the tube?

Fifth:

Don't be such a poor craftsman that every part you touch ends up damaged. For example, the rear seal and every painted metal part in the gun.

Notice the shiny spots on the trigger assembly? Those aren't "factory" or "worn" they are mainly tool marks where someone scraped it:

Sixth:

See my post in the "General Topics" area of the forum- Safety First. DO NOT forget to install the rear action hold down bolt in the stock. When you go to cock it- it will break the "Chinese mystery wood" stock and require extensive gluing and possibly reinforcement with a through-bolt or perhaps a couple of small steel plates as the wood quality is very poor from the factory. The stock assembly is 28" long without the butt pad, a bit under 7" high from lowest to highest point and about 1.75" at it's thickest. Total weight- well under 1lb. I don't know what type of wood this is- but a piece of plain pine (i.e. 2'x4' pine) would have greater density and strength than this light, extremely "open" pored stuff. Now, cracking the stock was my F-up and doing- not one of the errors the gun came with. Another replacement "mystery wood" stock from Crosman? About $40.00- near half of what a brand new gun costs so I think I'll attempt repairs and see if it holds together.

Please note though- the forward stock to receiver screw holes were almost all the way though when I got it, and the smaller, forward trigger guard screw had the wood stripped out. The quality of this wood is poor- and every precaution needs to be taken to avoid stressing it.

Side:

Here is a top view- the shiney spots are HD Exterior Wood Glue that has been used to hold it together and reinforce a couple of areas that weren't broken but still made me nervous:

The blue 'frame' it's sitting on is my home-made spring compressor. I put some carpet on it to protect things. Had I not used a spring compressor to take this "specially tuned" unit apart but instead used the "push it against a workbench" method- I would never be able to get it back together with the spring/spacer combo it had in it- so whoever put this monstrosity together obviously had one of some-sort- leading me to believe they had a vague idea of what they were doing- but chose to ignore safety and proper engineering, as well as some sort of general care when working in this gun.

And that's it. Take it how you want it- but I think there's some good pointers here on what to try and avoid if tuning a springer is something you want to attempt.

airbuddy3 · Member

Looks like someone butchered that gun ...nothing irreversable though ..
a lot of info on the web and a lot of people that havent done a tune before and have no way of knowing true knowledge from fluff .
so you often get bad info and novices that follow that that have no way of knowing , a bad combination .

The top spring looks like a Genuine Maccari Tarantula 33 coils and .128 CVH wire and .535 ID ..no mistakening it ..and no substitute .
Looks like it came with the right amount of spaceing and wieghting too Laughing

Regards ,
Frank