2003 CCM J2 Walkthrough: Part II

I figured before I made any more progress on assembling and timing the marker I would give a quick rundown of what I've got.

Here it is...a 2003 CCM J2 Autococker. The anno is dust grey and the marker has a little bit of anno wear but not very much. One thing that I am actually kind of excited about on this gun is the barrel. Of course the factory anno is a perfect match but the milling and porting is also very cool. It also happens to be a 14" barrel...which I like much better than the current 12" barrels.

The Pneumatics

I've got a CCM 3-way, CCM Ram and Dye Rocket LPR. The air first comes into the LPR, is regulated down and flows into the 3-way. The 3-way is the little silver guy and he basically manages the airflow as you pull the trigger. The ram is what cocks the marker and loads a ball into the breech. Air enters the ram, forcing the cocking rod back, (this is where you do the work if you have a pump handle on it) moving the bolt back, allowing a ball to fall into the breech while simultaneously cocking the hammer. So, when the marker is at rest, you've got a loaded ball and a hammer latched in with a spring behind it, waiting to get released so a blast of air can then propel the ball. Alright...that's enough autococker 101...I really just wanted to show you what was on the front block.

Everything else is pretty standard. Stock super tall feedneck. The stock feedneck clamp did come with the gun but unfortunately it's in two pieces. The surprising part is that it still does its job...how's that for reliability? The back block, front block, frame, bolt, internals, beavertail, frame and reg are all genuine CCM. It didn't come with a rail or ASA but I've got a few kicking around so that wasn't a big deal. The only hassle that I've had to deal with is the placement of the reg in relation to the frame. You either have to remove the grip frame or the air fitting on the reg to get the reg off of the body. Not a big deal but a bit of a pain when you've taken the gun apart then put the frame back on realizing that you forgot to put the reg on.

This particular J2 (as is the case with most of them) was drilled for eyes from the factory. This allows you to get an aftermarket electronic grip frame that can tell when there's a ball in the breech. It's is a coveted thing among 'cocker fans to have an undrilled body...I don't think it's so bad. What's important to me is that it was done in the factory, so the anno is intact and it's done well.

So that's the breakdown. Next post will have assembled pics of the marker and hopefully an accounting of how easy it was to get it timed.  I am currently waiting for a fitting for the LPR.  The one that came with it threads too far into the body of the LPR and gets in the way of the reg piston.

2003 CCM J2 Walk-Through: Part I

95% of the paint that I've shot has been out of a pump and the majority of that paint has been shot out of a sniper-based pump...specifically one of the CCM's I've owned over the past few years.

I am a pretty handy guy and I know my way around snipers pretty well. I'm no expert but I can break one down, clean it up, get it back together, get it shooting to the appropriate velocity and time the autotrigger (if needed).

That being said, I've never fiddled with an Autococker, so I figured I would pick one up and see what it was all about. I've been spoiled by CCM guns so I figured this 2003 CCM J2 would be a good place to start.

I picked this up on Ebay and immediately aired it up. It was apparent right away that it needed some work. It fired but not reliably and it had some leaks. I didn't know exactly what I was getting into so I started with three things.

• Tightening/Replacing Screws
• A Little Autococker Timing Research
• A Quick Call to CCM

Tightening, Replacing & Cleaning

From working with pumps I know that it's important for everything to line up the way it's intended. If the frame or cocking rod are loose, that will mess with your timing. The rear frame screw on the J2 was a little long which created a gap in the frame, so I replaced that with the appropriate length screw. Then I made sure the cocking rod was snug.

At this point I tried cocking the marker. It didn't quite work so I adjusted the hammer lug and loosened the lower travel screw on the trigger so I could get full travel on the trigger and the sear would clear the hammer lug. (If this doesn't make sense, hold tight, I'll go into a little more detail later). This pretty much ended my carry over knowledge from working on pumps.

Autococker Timing Research

I poked around online and found a couple of good resources for autococker timing. The video below is a reasonable (non-annoying) introduction to timing an autococker. It doesn't go into any of the details of maintaining or servicing the pneumatics, but it does give a good feel for what each of the parts do and how they work together. I also found this article to be a good reference. The most confusing part of working with an autococker (in my opinion) is the terminology. There are a lot of parts required to accurately and consistently get a marker to automatically fire and recock (e.g. Ram, Hammer, Hammer Lug, IVG, Back Block, Front Block, LPR, Ram, 3-Way, HPR, Cocking Rod, Breech, Bolt, Trigger, etc)

Using the two references above, I was able to get the J2 to shoot and recock pretty reliably. It still had some small leaks but it was a good first step. I figured my next step was to phone a friend.

My Call To CCM

I called CCM to speak to Rod earlier this week just to get an idea of what I was working with. Since I had watched the video, read the article above and had some experience with snipers I was able to follow along with Rod's descriptions pretty well. It's always fun to chat with Mel and Rod. I did have a couple of specific questions for him about this marker.

What's the operating pressure of the regulator?

Rod told me that these were designed to run around the same pressure as their current guns, right around 350 psi. All of the current CCM pumps also operate very well in the 300-350 psi range, so that's a good starting point for any CCM marker. Other autocockers may operate at a different pressure so do some research to find out where you should set your reg if it's not a CCM gun.

What is the advantage of having an adjustable LPR?

My understanding is that the LPR let's you determine how hard the bolt is going to hit the ball. With a stock CCM setup, they wanted to bolt to bounce off of a ball if it got stuck in the breech so they designed it to work at pretty low pressure (around 35 psi). Other guns may run at a higher pressure.

What should I do to clean this thing up?

Rod suggested that the LPR may be loctited into the body since that's the only component that actually has air running from the gun into it. He suggested that I just take the parts off of the front block, clean them up and relube. Because of the design of the 2003 J2's ASA, you have to remove the timing rod from the 3-way so your timing will have to be readjusted once you are done putting it back together. One thing I noticed is that pneumatics have some very small o-rings. Much smaller than anything in my kit for my CCM pumps.

So Where Am I Now?

I've got the gun all cleaned up and put back together. The cleanup actually went pretty well. A quick q-tip through the 3-way and a little lube here and there and it was in good shape. I adjusted the 3-way, and with a little trial and error, I got the timing is close but I do have to figure out a couple of leaks. I need to replace all of the hoses on the pneumatics and replace a couple of o-rings on the LPR and I should then be able to dial in the timing. Since I don't have any of the hoses or o-rings I need, I'll have to get to a paintball store to pick those up.

From there the next step is to put some paint through it and see what it chrono's at. Before that, I may go through a run down of the parts on the gun as it sits now.