Fixing Air Leaks Across All KitsUpdated 34 minutes ago
Symptoms
The most common symptom of an air leak is the sound of air leaking out of the gun when you are not pulling the trigger.
Air leaks can vary greatly in severity, ranging from inaudible to noisy, with the volume correlating directly with said severity.
Very minor or slow air leaks may even be completely inaudible, with the only real symptom being a gradual drop in pressure in your HPA tank over the course of hours or days.
Leaks can also happen during trigger pulls. These can be difficult to detect over the noise of the gun cycling.
Depending on the severity and location of the leak, you may also experience one or more of the following symptoms:
- Gun does not cycle fully or at all
- Cycling is uneven in power and/or rate, especially in fully automatic
- Feeding issues related to the above
- Your HPA tank empties much sooner than expected
Causes
There are multiple causes for air leaks, depending on the location.
The most common causes include:
- Dry or damaged O-rings
- Loose hose fitting
- HPA regulator not tightened on HPA tank
- Loose or missing airshaft rear set screw
- Gun jam
- Valve stem/poppet sticking
- Damaged or loose airshaft crush ring
Solutions
Some of these leaks can be fixed by performing regular maintenance. Please see our General Maintenance Guide.
If none of the following troubleshooting solves your air leak, please contact DGA support.
Check the following first:
- Check the tightness of the HPA regulator on your tank.
- Check to make sure that the QD fitting on your Daytona Gun is pushed up on the air line.
- Check with a different tank and regulator if available, to rule them out as a cause.
For leaks when you are NOT pulling the trigger:
- Remove the air valve from the engine.
- Remove the circular cap on the back of the air valve and push the valve stem backwards out of the valve.
- Check and lubricate and/or replace the two O-rings in the top channel of the air valve (where the airshaft passes through).
- Check and lubricate and/or replace the two O-rings on the valve stem and the one on the circular cap,
- Check and tighten the airline fitting on the bottom of the air valve. This should be a little more than finger tight. You may want to add some thread lock to the threads as well.
- Reinstall the valve stem. Check that is slides back and forth with minimal resistance.
- Reinstall the air valve cover and reinstall the air valve into the engine.
For leaks when you pull the trigger:
- Remove the bolt carrier from the engine.
- Check your inner barrel for jams and clear it if there is one. If you do have a jam, you should also inspect your hop up bucking for damage.
- Remove the bolt tank from the bolt carrier. This may require removing a socket-head machine screw using a 3mm hex driver.
- Remove the airshaft collar from the airshaft by unscrewing the four set screws on the collar using a 2mm hex driver.
- Pull the airshaft forwards out of the bolt tank.
- Pull the plunger off of the front of the airshaft.
- Check and lubricate and/or replace the two O-rings on the outside of the plunger, and the single O-ring on the inside.
- Check the crush ring for damage or wear, and check to make sure it is secured on the airshaft flange and does not move. Replace the crush ring if it is damaged. Glue it back down using CA glue if it is loose.
- Check and lubricate and/or replace the O-ring in the rear of the bolt tank.
- Check that the M5 set screw in the back opening of the airshaft is both still there and not loose. If it is missing, replace it with another M5x5 set screw. If it is loose, reinstall it using some thread lock. Thread it into the back of the airshaft until it is at least flush with the rear opening.