11 replies to this topic

[J cobbers]

I recently aquired a Wildfire in a trade. Now the wild fire came out about 6 years ago (1999) and having previously owned one I am familiar with some of it's defects. Namely that they usually suffer from a slow and coninious loss of air. The PC and RF20 were able to solve this problem but I've always preferred the look of the wildfire.

So when I got this I was not surprized to find that it had the same slow leak I remembered, and I have decided to fix it if possible. Opening the gun showed me a few things one that the plastic clamps over the rubber bladder are not sufficient and had developed cracks where they screw together due to fatigue. This is one source of leaks. The other is the over pressure release on the rear bladder clamp. The the places where the tubing attaches to the bladder and trigger valve is another. A final potential place it could be leaking is out the valve itself but there is little that I would be able to do about that.

Any way here is my plan of attack on this problem.
1) Goop all places that hoses attach-done
2) Goop the air release valve. -done
3) Get large hose clamps to use over the plastic ones instead of screwing them together.
4) Glue over and fill in any cracks.-mostly done
5) Spray silicon into as many moving parts as possible.

When finnished I will post my results.
I welcome any advice from anyone who has sucessfully fixed a leaky WF, or anyone with some ideas to help.

[Jangadance]

Sounds great man, I wish you luck. I really want to know how it turns out. I have 4-5 WFs, at least 3 are leaky, skipping, or entirely broken.

[ItalionStallion]

Heres to hoping you're successful.

I always like seeing what people do with older guns.

[Jakethesnake]

Cobbers: I finally found those black pegs, if you still want them pm me with your addy and I can mail them to you.

[foamsmith]

I've had two leaky wildfires. It's been a while since I worked on them but I think I remember that they each had just one leak, and that was on the triger valve. If you have silcone spray, then I'd recommend spraying a liberal amount in the trigger valve. That should help the leak a lot, if not stop it. Both of the plastic collars around the bladder were broken, but nothing leaked out there. I don't think I had a leak at the over pressure release valve on the bladder. If you think do, I recommend you spray some more silcone spray in there as well.

[Zero Talent]

I've owned and fixed a leaky Wildfire.

After pumping it up, I tossed it underwater to locate the leak. I recommend the same procedure to find the leak(s) in question.

Naturally, mine was out of the end tank clamp. So, the fix went a little like this:

1 x 1/2" CPVC Endcap
1 x Hoseclamp
Plumber's Goop
Sharp Knife

The idea was to make the outside of the endcap rough, and then place it into the tank, closed end out. So, I cut deeply into the sides of the endcap with the closed end facing me (forming sharp little barb/flakes of protruding plastic), spread a little Plumber's Goop on the inside of the tank and the outside of the cap, pushed the cap into the tank, and used a hoseclamp.

Replacing the plastic base clamp is also recommended, since that thing's weak as well. Just chop the mating piece (half of the clamp) off the tank tube, deburr it, attach the hoseclamp, and use a little duct tape to ensure the tank doesn't move around too much.

If it's out of the other parts... Well, you'll have to figure out why it leaks. Epoxied components are never cool.

[J cobbers]

Now that my semester is over and I'm done with my finals, I finally got around to finishing this project and thought I'd give you all the results. I'm glad to say that the leaking has been stopped. I've had the gun fully pumped for the last 5 minutes and there is no noticable change. Before in the same amount of time it would have lost half it's air.

Also because when I bought this gun I never got the black pegs I improvized a substiution with a circle of foam craft sheet, cut to fit inside the two layers of the turret. I cut a big hole in the center and smaller holes for screws and nozzel like portions that stick into the barrels.

The end result is a nice increase in range and velocity and a gun that doesn't leak a bit.

[euphemism]

wouldn't a tank replacement be more effective due to higher pressure tolerence? then couldn't you do more pumps and get better range/power? just wondereing

[torch]

Yay now I can fix my wf.

[J cobbers]

wouldn't a tank replacement be more effective due to higher pressure tolerence? then couldn't you do more pumps and get better range/power? just wondereing

No, because it doesn't use a tank so much as a rubber bladder. Thus might as well just make the tank work.

[quasar]

Hello, I'm trying to fix a leaky wildfire and having some problems. After replacing the bladder's end cap with a pvc cap, and removing the plastic mating piece and hose clamping both sides, I still have a leak. Is there something I overlooked?

[J cobbers]

How bad is the leak? Assuming it is not leaking from the bladder, it could be leaking from any where the connecting hoses attach to the trigger valve. Take it apart, fill up your bath tub stick the bladder and trigger under the water and pump it up a bit to see where you are getting a leak.
Then goop the leak unless it's coming back out the trigger, then try some silicone lubricant spray.

If the air is coming back out of the pump, you are pretty much S.O.L. Good luck getting it fixed.

Edited by J_cobbers, 21 May 2005 - 04:42 PM.