[I-Man]

Greetings,

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally received my "custom" Stroker. Unfortunately, it has been giving me a host of problems since I got it 5 days ago. I was wondering if some of the more knowledgable folk here could diagnose the problems and offer some solutions.

First and foremost, I can't seem to get decent velocity. It chrono'ed 160fps straight from the box and I've been tinkering with the velocity adjuster and input pressure (PPS Male Stab.) in an effort to get this thing shooting right. I do not have a guage on my Stab. so I cannot know for sure exactly what the pressure is, but using the chrono, there is a certain point where turning up the reg. actually decreases velocity. At this point, I backed off slightly and left it set at that.(the adjusting screw looks to be flush with the casing) The Stab. never seemed to provide me more than 30-40 fps increase in velocity, max., is this normal or should the range be greater?
With the Stab. set as high as I could manage, I fined tuned by dialing in the velocity adjuster. I only seemed able to get approx. 280fps by cranking the velocity adjuster in almost full. This of course meant that I had to increase the cocking pressure to match, so the marker would actually complete the cycle and fire. With the extreme mainspring compression, the hammer tended to push against the valve stem (VERY soft valve spring apparently) and every so often I vented gas from the barrel until I could scramble to manually cock the hammer back and off the valve stem. This dilemma lead me to dial out the adjuster, but then again, I lost velocity, drastically so. How can I remedy this problem? The Stab. only goes so far in term of velocity adjustment and the vel. adj. can only be dialed in so far until I begin to press open the valve and vent gas.

Also, I did notice that my main spring had been clipped! For what reason, I do not know. Are there Sheridan spring sets that mimic the more familiar nelson/cocker variety? Another thing I noticed was that my hammer had a "notch" ground in to it horizontally. Any ideas as to why?

Speaking of the valve, I was sent pictures and the porting looked cavernous, not to mention the valve stem had been replaced with a KAPP item (thinner) for increased flow. Thing is, the body exhaust port (from the valve to the bolt) and the inlet/outlet ports of the bolt are stock size and very tiny. It doesn't seem to make sense to port out the valve for higher flow and leave the body/bolt ports unmatched in their stock configuration. It looks like airflow would still be restricted before it reaches the ball. Can anyone explain? Am I missing something? I'd pull the valve from the body for inspection but don't have the specialty Sheridan valve tool needed.

Then there is the issue of efficiency. (all accidental gas venting aside) I barely managed to get 500 shots from a 16oz. stubby, on anti-siphon. I've been told even stock Strokers should get a better shot count than that. The temperature outside was up in the 30's (celsius), so the tank pressure should have been pretty good I think.

Also, I'm looking to tap my trigger shoe to act as a stop. I have a Sovereign frame & sliding trigger on my Stroker and the switch is early on in the trigger pull. It's smooth as buttah really, but the pull is long and there is alot of overtravel. I'd like to shorten it. What size tap/screw would I need to mimic the PPS item?

I do have a question about my timing rod aswell. It is flattened, yet the trigger slot seems to be a tad big for it and there is a little bit of slack either way. Is there any way I could flatten the rod out some more to get a snug fit? I though perhaps annealing the metal with a torch and lightly tapping it to a flatter profile. Any ideas besides buying a new timing rod and having it machined and threaded to fit the unique Sovereign 3-way linkage?

SIGH I'm kinda bummed out about the performance (or lack thereof) thus far. All cosmetic boo-boos aside, I had at least hoped that with the time and effort (and money) put in to my little dream setup, I would have come out looking and performing better than it has thus far. Still, I'm willing to put more money in to it so as I don't end up having myself expensive paperweight, but I was hoping all this would have been taken care of by the customizer beforehand. I'm reluctant to send it back (or, if it will even be taken back) after past doings, not to mention at further cost to myself, both in time and money.

Anyways, all comments and suggestion welcomed, I'm determined to get this thing up and running the way I'd hoped it to be.

Thank You,

Ian