WaterWar.net

So as I posted recently, I re-acquired my old CPS-1200. I went to test it out today, only to find out the trigger doesn't seem to be working. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until after I put water in it and pressurized it.

What's the best way to take apart a pressurized soaker and any tips for disassembling a 1200?

Only open it enough that you can reach in and pull the rod, then open the rest. I would go for the area around the trigger, that way you can easily access the rod while keeping one hand on the PC to make sure it doesn't fly back and spray its payload everywhere. This approach also should work regardless of which version of 1200 you've got.

Once you have released the water, how you get the nozzle cover off depends on the mark. For mk1/mk3, a bit of light prying on the top and bottom is all that is necessary to get it off. For mk2/mk4, heavy prying, probably all around the nozzle cover. You'd be lucky to get it off in one piece with those marks.

Any guides out there on how to distinguish the marks? It's silver and purple, if that helps narrow it down.

Thanks for the tips!

Any internal guides? I've taken out all the screws I can get to and the ring around the pump, but I can't open it enough to really see what's going on. I do hear something rattling around, so I'm gonna guess that's what's causing the issues.

Sometimes you just gotta pry it open and hear a few screws pop through the plastic. Or you can drill out the rusted screws .

You have to pry off the nozzle cover, there's a screw underneath. My CPS 1200 has never had any problems so far, so that's about all I can say.
-Although, if the screw is stuck, you can always attack it with bolt cutters from the inside to get the thing open.

Thanks to a hack saw and a couple flathead screwdrivers, I was able to remove the nozzle cover tonight. Then I could get to the two screws there and open it enough that the pressure could be relieved. I still can't get to the one super-deep screw near the reservoir, but I have a new screwdriver on order that should be able to resolve that. Hopefully after this weekend everything will be back together and working!

That's good! Can you take pictures?

Once the screwdriver shows up tomorrow (Amazon Prime FTW) I'll see about taking some. In my struggles to get it open, a black metal wire/bar fell out. Looking at the pics on iSoaker, that's what connects the trigger to the valve, so hopefully it'll just be a matter of fitting it back in there.

So I got it open, and it turns out the white plastic piece that connects to the trigger and the bar broke. I tried to fix it with some silicone adhesive I had lying around, but that wasn't strong enough. I was thinking some epoxy might do the trick - any thoughts or suggestions?

A small strip of metal should make the repair more rigid.

Hey, welcome back Andrew, and happy birthday!

I've finally gotten around to finishing repairing this. I cut a couple thin pieces of plastic to the same size as the white plastic piece and then used epoxy to attach them and fill in the hole where the metal bar went through and the area where the plastic broke. Then I re-drilled a hole in it for the metal bar. It seems plenty strong and is holding up quite well. I have a working Super Soaker again!

Congratulations on the repair! I'd love to see you and your 1200 at the NC war.

That's great news! It sounds like you had to be pretty precise. I would be nervous going into a mod like this. As SEAL said, what's the likelyhood you can make it to some wars?

The plastic was thin enough I could cut it with a X-acto knife, so precision was easy. I wasn't too nervous - if it didn't hold then I'd just move on to getting some aluminum like Andrew suggested and cutting that to size.

As far as making it to some wars - we'll have to see. I may be changing jobs in the not-too-distant future, so that would really impact my availability. I'll try to keep an eye on where you guys are hosting them though.

I've seriously considered replacing parts with aluminum recently. Our first war will be in North Carolina on the 23rd, 5 hours straight south on I 95 from where you are. We have 2 other members coming from MD though.