So, let's get it on with the troubleshooting shall we?
Problem: My Spyder won't shoot.
Causes and solutions:
- The most common cause for this is the lack of gas, or enough pressure thereof to shoot. Solution: fully charge your tank and try again.
- Sometimes, and you'd be surprised how often this happens, people don't know they have an on/off ASA. Newer spyders like the 08 electra come with a convenient on/off ASA, which is there to aid in preventing any gas loss when unscrewing your tank from the marker. Make sure that if you have one of those, that the ASA is in the "ON" position, because obviously, in the off position no gas goes to the valve and ergo, no shooting.
- If your spyder is electronic and you have gas, even an experienced user can make very silly mistakes. First, check that you have fully charged your battery, because sometimes even if the marker appears to be on (i.e. has enough power to light up the LEDs or the LCD), it may not have enough juice to fire the solenoid. Also keep in mind that some spyders will only work with 9.6V (ideally a 9.6V paintball battery that looks exactly like a regular 9V), so in some cases an off the drugstore shelf 9V duracell will not have enough voltage to operate the solenoid. Also check your eyes are on or off, since eyes on + no paint = no bang bang. Oh, and don't forget to check your marker is not in safety mode, that will prevent shooting as well.
Problem: My spyder "burps" and doesn't recock, and i have to manually cock it to shoot.
Causes and solutions:
- In most cases, and with a properly maintained marker, this problem is just that your gas tank is almost empty and doesn't have enough pressure to recock the marker, so the striker is pushed back somewhat, but not far enough to reach the sear and thus it just travels forth again and pushes the valve pin again and so on until it stops. Think of it as dropping a tennis ball on the floor.
- In some cases, this may mean your striker isn't properly lubricated, which will generate friction inside the tube and if you know your physics you know that frictions slows things down and again, the striker doesn't reach the sear and does the same as described above.
- It could also be that your striker's o-ring is gone, as this is the o-ring that makes the seal around the tube so all the gas is used to propel the striker back. If gas escapes around the striker, then the striker will not reach the sear and thus not recock.
- Then there's heavier issues to consider. Since the spyder works on a somewhat delicate balance of spring tensions and gas pressure, you need to make sure that your springs are adequate for the job. Sometimes, to solve recocking issues, you may have to replace your springs. Spring kits for spyders are easily found on the web and are not very expensive at all. A excessively strong main spring may prevent it from recocking by not allowing the striker to travel back far enough with the supplied pressure. Equally, an excessively strong valve spring will do the same, but by not allowing the valve to stay open long enough for enough has to travel to the striker end. It is also the same to have one spring in good condition and the other worn, if this is the case, it will also result in the situation i just described.
- Finally, the last recocking issue i can think of is a worn sear. Since the sear's job is to capture the striker, if the sear's edge is dented, rounded or worn due to regular use, the striker will not stop at the sear and will be pushed back into the valve, just like a tennis ball that keeps on bouncing if nobody is there to catch it.
Problem: my spyder shoots slow balls, no matter how much i turn the velocity adjustment.
Cause and solution:
- This issue usually relates to a weak striker spring. You see, if the spring is worn, weak or damaged, it will not offer a great deal of force to the striker, and while it has enough tension to push the striker forward to push the valve open and come back, the valve may not open for long enough for sufficient gas to get the ball out of the barrel at the desired speed, but it will recock because the spring isn't offering much resistance and very little gas pressure would be needed to reset it at the sear. The simple solution would be, change your striker spring. If that doesn't help, change the valve spring as well.
A suggestion often made on this forum for lubrication issues on spyders (as a first step to solve problems), is to add a few drops of paintball oil into the ASA (air source adaptor, where the tank screws in) and dry firing it a dozen times, i.e. with gas but no paintballs. This will lube up valve and other essential parts quickly and easily.
OH NOES my marker leaks!
Chill, no reason to panic. Often leaks are easily resolved with lubrication and changing o-rings. Lubrincating everything that shouold be lubricating is always a good idea but which o-rings to change will depend on where the leak is.
Gas leaking at the ASA:
Check the condition of the tank's valve and o-ring as often doing something as simple as changing the o-ring there solves this issue. If not that, check the ASA receiver for dirt or foreign objects that might prevent the tank from making a proper seal on it. And if not that either, check the condition of the tank's valve for deformities or dings. A dinged tank is an unsafe tank and should be disposed of or have its valve replaced.
Gas leaking at the hoses:
Simple, a damaged hose will leak. If it leaks out of where they're attached at it's likely the hose it's not properly screwed in, or that that it's missing their o-rings at the ends. Check that the connection is tight and that it has its o-rings in place.
Gas leaking out the front:
Some spyders have this finger sticking out under the barrel. This thing is called a volumizer, and this part is screwed on to the front of the vertical ASA (where your foregrip is, be it an expansion chamber or sometimes a regulator). Check the volumizer has its o-ring and that it is properly screwed on.
Gas leaking out the barrel:
This is a classic symptom of a busted cupseal or a damaged valve body o-ring, most specifically, the front o-ring of the valve body. You'll need to take your marker apart to the bone and remove the valve to replace that o-ring or cupseal.
Gas leaking out of the barrel AND the back:
This could be a few things. First, the cupseal, as a damage cupseal will cause gas to leak out the barrel and towards the hammer. It could also be that BOTH o-rings of the valve body are done for. Cupseals, given that they're plastic, have a limited useful life, and those that operate on markers that shoot on CO2 only tend to break more (so don't be cheap, if there's nitro/air in your field, buy yourself a nice $50 48/3000).
Gas leaking out of anywhere else on the marker:
It's likely then that the body of the marker is damaged, and some serious parts replacement is needed.
ELECTRONICS! (huh?)
Electronic spyders are not "electropneaumatic". Memorize that ppl. Having an electric/electronic spyder means that the frame is electric and the sear is operated by a solenoid. You could very easily attach a mechanical spyder frame that fits on an electronic one and it'll fire all the same, though much slower.
BATTERIES COME FIRST!
If your electric spyder won't work, see above on the won't shoot section. Chances are you either have discharged batteries, or wrong batteries.
MAKING THE CONNECTION
If it does have fully charged batteries and it will not turn on, check your connections of the power supply to your board (carefully though, know there is a certain voltage inversion in there, it's not a good idea to have it connected to the battery when tinkering with it).
KEEP YOUR CONNECTIONS
If it powers on, but it won't shoot, it could be a low battery, but often it's a faulty connection from the trigger to the board OR from the board to the solenoid.
OPEN YOUR EYES!
A common issue with spyder electronic markers is the presence of eyes. Dirty eyes will prevent the marker from shooting or worse, chop paint like crazy, so grab your swabs and clean them prediocically during a day's game.
And here's a video of me tearing down my mongoose, which is a lot like the older mech and electronic spyders.
YouTube - Stacked tube blowback (kingman spyder, spyder clones) teardown and rebuild
Enjoy.
I hope this has helped you, enjoy your spyder, and if you can't find a solution to your problem in here, or the solutions covered here don't work for you, don't hesitate and post a new thread asking for help.
Spyder Q&A
. In newer spyders the cupseal is shaped to act as a spring guide as well as a seal on the valve.
), there's a conical spring, called the valve spring. The role of this spring is to push the valve closed after shooting.
