Repair Guide :.
CPS 1500 Pump Repair
Disclaimer: The following repair guide is provided for informational purposes. Not all these repairs have actually been tested here. iSoaker.com and its affiliates cannot and will not take any responsibility to any damages caused as a direct or indirect result of anything attempted. Use at your own risk/discretion.
By: iSoaker.com | Posted: 20030902
The Problem: During a vigorous battle, the CPS1500 I was using started acting strangely. For awhile, the pump was functioning, but at only about 50% efficiency. A lot of water began to dribble out the front of the pump shaft (not normal for any soaker to do this). Then, a few pumps later, the resistance typically felt while pumping disappeared, the pump shaft slid in and out freely, and a steady stream of water flowed out of the end of the pump-shaft area. Simply put, the pump gave out, but I wasn't entirely sure the nature of the problem.
CPS 1500 Pump Disassembly and Repair: Luckily, the particular model of the CPS1500 has an easy to remove pump-shaft front cover. Basically, the orange piece that marks the front of the pump shaft could be easily unscrewed to reveal the pump piston/shaft and allow complete removal of the piston from the blaster. Once removed, I noticed the end of the piston seemed to have a break on it and appeared to be missing the pieces since the piston no longer made an air-tight seal within the pump shaft. Peering into the CPS1500's pump shaft with a miniflashlight, I noticed a black rubber-washer-type object lodged at the deep end of the shaft. I initially considered opening up the whole soaker to attempt to extract that piece, but decided, instead, to grab a long, stiff piece of metal in order to hook and pull out the broken pieces that were lodged in the shaft. After several minutes, I managed to remove the bits.
 Pump piston, 2 washer-like objects, and the little plastic retainer that is normally attached to the end of the pump piston found within the pump shaft. |
To my surprise, there were two specialized washers as well as a plastic cap that apparently is meant to hold the washers in place at the end of the piston. I noted that the broken plastic on the piston matched the break point on the little bit of plastic removed from the piston shaft. I considered first attempting to repair the broken plastic piece first, then reassemble the piston, but the broken piece that was screwed into the piston could not be removed. Thus, I chose to just epoxy the washers and plastic holder to the end of the piston in the conformation that seemed to make the most sense for the pump.
 Repaired piston with washers glued both to the piston, the end-retainer, and to each other. The end piece cannot be seen since it is completely covered by the end-washer. |
24 hours later, the epoxy had set and the pump piston felt relatively sturdy. I re-inserted the piston back into the pump shaft, rescrewed the end-cap to the blaster, and loaded up the CPS1500's reservoir. First check, no water dribbled out of the pump shaft. Now it was time for the true test: pumping up the firing chamber. I tried a few light pumps at first and did a small test shot. It seemed to be working. Thus, I chose to continue pumping to fill the entire firing chamber. Worked beautifully! While I still had water in the reservoir, I tried removing the pump piston just to check on how well the repair job was holding up. Everything seemed good. Thus, I closed it up, did a few more shots, then emptied the soaker and now await for it to dry properly.
The repair done seems to have worked quite well, but I'm not sure how much abuse it can take before another pumping failure. I suppose time will tell.
