Super Soaker XP 40 Tank Seal Problem

[Briguy52]

About a year ago I picked up a used XP 40 in decent condition for $1 at a garage sale.
Originally the pump's o-ring was in bad condition, but having a bunch of spare o-rings from some Nerf stuff lying around, I was able to remedy that easily.

However, with a couple pumps, water begins to leak out from the seal between the water reservoir and the part where it screws into the blaster.

-The o-ring is present (and in good condition) on the 'male' part of the purple water reservoir
-I did line up the little notch with the indent so that there's a snug fit
-Upon disassembling the blaster after the leakage, there's a visible gap about the thickness of a playing card between water reservoir and the adapter piece (where the reservoir screw into)
-There's no o-ring in the adapter part but since I couldn't find any internal shots of the purple adapter piece, I have no idea if there's even supposed to be one there.
-I'd be more than happy to upload some pictures if that would happy. Just a standard XP 40 with nothing really looking out of the ordinary so I didn't bother.

I used the 'search' function but couldn't find any fixes, either here or elsewhere on the internet, may be simply because I didn't look hard enough.
Anyways, thanks for any help. I'm thinking that the solution might be as simple as just some rubber bands or something to close the gap. Since the reservoir also fills from the back (a big perk over my XXP 175's which are obnoxious to reload) I don't need to worry about having the reservoir permanently connected to the rest of the blaster.

Oh, and here's a bonus picture of the blaster which happened to have a cool reverse color scheme to the Larami SuperMaxx 750.

[isoaker]

Welcome to WaterWar.net! I see you've made some great posts already; thanks!

As for the problem with your XP40, pics would help. Mine is in too deep storage for me to easily pull out and check, but it does sound like some washer or o-ring is missing and preventing a good seal between the reservoir and the rest of the blaster. The pictures I have just don't offer a clear enough view of that portion of the blaster.

Solution may be simple as you said using some rubber bands or even teflon tape, but it also needs to be able to withstand the pressure of a properly pumped blaster.

[soakinader]

I had the exact same problem with my XP 40. I managed to get the thing to seal for a while with tape, but it wasn't long before it started to leak again. I suppose the problem is that the reservoir is so small that only two or three pumps extra is all it takes to break it. So get in there and go crazy with the glue.
And welcome to the forum, again.

[Briguy52]

I think I'll see what I can do and then go with the glue method if all else fails. Great blaster but I don't really see myself using it too much as I'm much too paranoid about breaking vintage things and I might as well use something similar that's at least available today (such as an Outlaw or something). Thanks though!

[HBWW]

[quote[-Upon disassembling the blaster after the leakage, there's a visible gap about the thickness of a playing card between water reservoir and the adapter piece (where the reservoir screw into)[/quote]

I'm assuming this crack is on the the reservoir at the threads where the cap screws on? Do clarify.

Assuming it's some sort of pressure leak at a crack, we generally use epoxy to fix those up. However, in some cases, additional patching to supplement the epoxy is needed. (Some info in this thread may help: http://www.waterwar.net/site_wwn/board/topic6053.html ; I don't want to make a suggestion here yet as I've never had a successful PR crack repair yet.) However, I'm a bit confused as to why the blaster had to be taken apart to see it. Photos of the bad area would be ideal to get an idea of where it is.

Your repair will likely involve epoxy. I would recommend something good for plastics: I use Devcon Plastic Welder which also works well for sheet metal, a common repair material here. (You may need some to make a patch for the reservoir.) In any case, there's little to worry about attemping repairs if a blaster is broken. It'll be just as useless before and after the repair. (Can't really use a water blaster that soaks you more so than everyone else after all.) However, if it's too much trouble to you, the alternatives you mentioned work well too. Not sure how the outlaw is, but the P2 should be able to take on most XP's, and the Crickets (sold in 2-packs; Hornet is similar, but I prefer the Crickets' handling) are great for something small.

Personally, I ended up repairing a lot of PR's anyway, just because they're all a bit unique in their own way. No fear of breaking anything because it's already broken, and a good fix would restore the vintage blaster(s) to where they were before (at least in most cases; hopefully the firing valve doesn't fail).

Our forum is more lax than the NIC (especially NerfHaven); it takes more than small posting mistakes or forgetting to search to get banned (not that we condone that sort of posting behavior), although with that said, we do appreciate that you did your research ahead of time.

[the oncoming storm]

CA99 I find that I liked my hornet better than the cricket because I could get all my fingers on the pistol grip other than the rear grip their Identical. I Don't remember my MD 3000 (my first water gun) all that well due the fact that it broke when I was 7 But I think the grip was already smallish for my hand.

[HBWW]

Strange, I found the opposite to be true: my pinky fits better on the Cricket than on the Hornet. I guess I need to use them side by side, but when I picked up Scott's at MOAB or tried the ones in the stores (as far as I could), they definitely had a better grip. According to iSoaker, internals should be identical. For some reason, I get the impression that the Cricket performs better, but this is more than likely due to random perception biases.

[DX]

Buzz Bee Pistols have marks, that's probably why the Cricket was performing better. Original Crickets have larger nozzle orifices than other Crickets, and the orange ones have larger orifices than the recent re-releases. Of course, we're talking about tiny differences, but with a tiny blaster, it does matter. I have 2 Hornets, of different years, and their orifices are different sizes. I haven't seen enough Hornets to decide whether it's quality control or intentional, though.