Arctic Blast/Iron Man Mod Help

[TheColton]

I am currently modifying my Iron Man arctic blast (which has internals identical to the AB) and so far I have added a 6 layer bike tube Colossus, tightened the screw in the OPV, and taken off the pressure chamber container(so it can expand as much as I want it to). However I have two problems.

1) The top Max-D valve doesn't open fast enough to get good ranges.

2) The pump acts funny, so I need to pull it out and then wait a second and then push it back in...It takes a long time to pump.

So can one of you guys give me advice.

[HBWW]

Try lubing the top valve with silicone grease or spray (if you ask the hardware store for lube for plastic/rubber, they should pull up those two) and that should help it operate much more smoothly.

My old Flash Flood's pump has also been acting up and seems to have a similar problem. Maybe there's an issue with the seal or with valves; I'm not sure what the issue is as I haven't bothered trying to fix it yet. (As a general rule of thumb, that particular FF of mine always has a new problem for every old one I fix, usually just after I finish fixing the old problem.)

[TheColton]

I don't think its a grease problem. I pull the top lever back and it takes a half a second to fully open. I don't think the valve can take the added pressure from the colossus. It was working fine before the colossus. I have no idea whats wrong with the pump

[martianshark]

Your pump problem is the same thing my Arctic Blast had. Try taking out the screen that connects the reservoir to the pump system and clean it out. Be careful not to open it too many times - pretty soon I couldn't do anything to it anymore because the screws were stripped.

[TheColton]

Thanks Martianshark(my pump is fixed). However the Max-d system broke on the top valve. I'm going to replace it with a pvc valve.

[HBWW]

Ball valves shouldn't be affected that much by pressure changes, nowhere nearly as much as pull valves are. Try greasing it anyway, as that has solved every ball valve problem I've ever had to deal with. (Every problem where the rest of the mechanism was intact anyway.) The best way to do this is to remove the spring and disassemble the Max-D mechanism, so you can move the valve freely to spread the grease well.

[TheColton]

CA99-The Max-d levers and such broke and was nearly impossible to fix.

So far I fixed the pump and permanantly opened the top valve. I attached a pvc ball valve to that, followed by the laminator and I need to add a nozzle. After I fix some small leaks it will be done. If you guys want I'll post pics.

[martianshark]

This is exactly how I fixed my Arctic Blast. You might want to put a threaded adapter in front of the valve so you can make custom nozzles.

[HBWW]

Strange; shark's solution may be the best if the valve doesn't even seal anymore. You can also experiment with non-Max-D setups by figuring something out, which is it's own annoying work by itself. (Having to gut apart the casing to accommodate a PVC valve is a pain too.)