Angels™ are designed to be very low maintenance. They will consistently perform flawlessly as long as you adhere to WDP's recommended upkeep of the marker. Depending on how often you use your Angel™ and whether any problems have arisen, will determine the frequency of disassembly, inspection, and tuning.
Before you tune your Angel™, disassemble and inspect all the components. You are looking for any nicks on the components or in the marker internals that could damage o-rings or prevent the marker from sealing. Blend out any nicks with 800 grit sandpaper and then polish the area with the finest sandpaper you can find. Somewhere around 2000 grit. Check the hammer for any damage or brass shavings caused by hitting the valve stem. Replace if necessary. Also ensure the hammer has not come loose from the ram shaft. If so, remove the set screw, clean the threads, apply Loc-Tite and reinstall into the hammer. Remove the valve housing and check for damage.
While you have your Angel™ disassembled, now is a good time to replace all the o-rings and rebuild the LPR and inline regulators. We won't cover how to disassemble or reassemble your Angel™, we are confident you know how to read your manual. If you don't have a manual, visit our manuals page here for one.
The process of tuning will be done in 4 steps (3 if you have an Angel™ 4, Speed, or G7). 1.) Setting the ram stroke 2.) Setting the ram snap ring (not applicable to the Angel™ 4 or Speed) 3.) Setting the LPR pressure and 4.) Setting the valve dwell.
Reassemble and lubricate your Angel™ bearing in mind the above steps. You will need an Angel™ tool kit with gauge. If you don't have one and are going to be doing your own tuning each time, get one. They are not very expensive and beat trying to use a combination of tools to get the job done.
Step 1: Setting the ram stroke.
Make sure the ram shaft is pushed back into the ram as far as it will go and insert the ram and hammer assembly into the marker. Make sure that you've lubed it with Love Juice Extreme Grease or something equivalent. Grab your ram alignment tool out of your tool kit and start turning the ram in. With the rotor breech open, watch for the hammer to appear. When the hammer looks like it is getting close to where it will line up with the bolt pin, close the rotor breech. Make sure the bolt is installed. Kind of hard to finish this step without it.
If the breech won't close all the way, adjust the ram in or out until the breech will shut all the way. Now what you want to do is keep adjusting the ram forward (while opening and closing the rotor breech) slightly until you feel light resistance from the bolt pin hitting the rear side of the hammer groove. When opening and closing the rotor breech, you should feel and hear a light clicking sound. This takes all the slack out of the acceleration phase of the hammer coming forward.
Note: Step 3 can be checked at the same time as performing step 2. Install the LPR gauge from the Angel™ tool kit into the chamber with the LPR.
Step 2: Setting the ram snap ring.
This step is not applicable to Angel™ 4's, Speed's, or G7's because the snap ring is no longer present. Apply a small amount of removable grade (blue) Loc-Tite to the threads of the snap ring and start it in by hand into the ram. Now hold the ram from rotating with the ram alignment tool and insert the appropriate size metric allen wrench through the ram tool and thread in the snap ring until slight resistance is felt.
Now you will need to air-up the marker, leaving the back plate hanging for now. Make sure the bolt is installed and the breech lock pin is pushed forward. Now dry fire the marker while continuing to turn in the ram snap ring (making sure the ram doesn't rotate with it) until the marker stops firing and starts clicking. Now turn the snap ring back 1/4 turn and make sure the marker will fire. If the marker fires, you are all set. Go ahead and assemble the back of the marker now.
Note: If the ram wants to turn with the snap ring, then you will need to grow a third arm or get a helper to fire the marker for you. You can make small adjustments to the snap ring, fire the marker, make another adjustment, fire the marker, etc. to get it done but it goes quicker if you have a helper.
Step 3: Setting the LPR pressure.
If you rebuilt your LPR, reinstall it with the same number of shims that you took out. This should get you in the ballpark. If you haven't done so already, install the LPR guage where the end cap is in front of the LPR. Angel™ LED's, LCD's, & IR3's LPR's are in the lower left chamber when looking at it from the front. Angel™ 4's, Speed's, & G7's LPR's are in the lower right chamber.
Now air-up the marker if you are not doing this step in conjunction with step 2. Dry fire six shots or so to stabilize the LPR pressure and read the guage. Now compare your reading to the chart below. Note that in the chart it has what the LPR pressure should be with it's associated inline regulator input pressure. You will need an inline regulator with a pressure gauge installed or an adjustable HPA tank. If you have an adjustable HPA tank, loosen the inline regulator's velocity adjustment screw so that the inline regulator is not being regulated. Now adjust for the pressure in the chart.
If the LPR pressure isn't in the range of the chart, then you will need to remove the LPR and adjust the shims. Adding shims will increase the pressure where as removing shims decreases it. Continue adjusting and checking the pressure until it matches the chart. Then remove the LPR gauge and reinstall the end cap.
Step 4: Setting the valve dwell.
One last step and you will be back on the playing field. Your marker should be completely reassembled now. Air-up the marker if it isn't already and head for a chronograph. Fire the marker over a chronograph until it stabilizes at 290 FPS or so, as long as it is consistent.
Now set your valve dwell to the highest setting. This is the least efficient setting. Fire your marker over the chronograph and reduce the valve dwell little by little. You are looking for the velocity to decrease. When the velocity decreases, increase the dwell setting until the velocity returns to the previous setting. Now your marker is at it's most efficient setting.
Now your marker is tuned and in tip-top shape to tear up the field.
