How I clean my Tippmann A-5

[Trigga Nometry]

I have been asked and have seen many posts about how to clean and oil you’re a-5. I figured that the next time I went to clean mine I’d take some pics and put together a quick guide as to how I clean mine after a long day of playing. I tend to really clean everything so you may not need to do every step I do. I probably tend to over clean.

I use air tool oil to oil my A-5 because it is the best lube for the Palmer’s Stabilizer and in my opinion, the best lubricant for your paintball gun because after all, a paintball gun is essentially an air tool. Why no use air tool oil! The air tool oil is designed to atomize when blasted with air. That means it gets easily carried with the air blasting through your marker and really keeps the A-5 lubed.

Anyway, here is how I do it:

Here is the dirty A-5. Covered with paint and just real messy:


First I pull out the tool kit that I have and make sure I have everything there along with a roll of paper towels:


First I take off the Red Dot from my JCS off-set and also remove the scope covers that I use:


Then I remove the Flatline and completely take it apart. I really give this a good cleaning and sometimes put it in boiling water to be sure all the paint is out. No need to do that this time because not a single break occurred during the day:


It gets messy in there:

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Then I remove the push pins:


Remove the grip and slide out the Tombstone adapter. In this case the Tombstone adapter is attached to my LPK volumizer:


To remove the internals, I first remove the JCS RVA stock. Before that, I loosen this screw so that the RVA easily slides out and so does the internals:


Then I carefully remove the internals:


Then everything, except the A-5 body and internals, gets tossed into real hot water with dishwashing liquid. I be sure to scrub everything with a sponge to get all the paint off.


Then I rinse off it all real well and let it dry while I clean the A-5’s body:

[Trigga Nometry]

Here is the body of the A-5 that I wash separately:


It has the internals removed:


Talk about a mess!


This will make some of you cringe, but I actually run hot water on and through the A-5’s body to give it a real good cleaning:


Get it real clean with a sponge:


Rinse it real well:


Dry the outside:

[Trigga Nometry]

And inside with paper towels:


Then take the bottom plate off the cyclone feed to dry:


Clean:


and Oil it with two drops of air tool oil:


I now clean the internals using a paper towel. This is to remove and wear and oxidized metal. You can see how the paper towel gets dirty just from rubbing the parts:


I then oil the valve’s o-ring with one drop of air tool oil:

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Oil the front and rear bolt’s o-rings:



Put the internals back inside:


Here they are all the way in:


Now put the drive spring, buffer o-ring, and pin back in:


Put the RVA back on along with one push pin so that the drive spring doesn’t pop it back out:

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Tighten this screw back in to lock the RVA on there real well:


Put the Tombstone back in along with the push pin:


Put the grip back on along with it’s push pins:


One drop of air tool oil inside the cocking handle to keep it lubed:


Two drops of oil in the ASA, in this case the female stabilizer

[Trigga Nometry]

Now to get the A-5 looking real good I put a small amount of Hoppes #9 on a paper towel and lightly cover the A-5’s receiver halves with it. It makes the A-5 look brand new and will help protect the finish from future paint splatters. It actually makes a huge difference:


Dry fire a few times to get the air tool oil all inside and spread throughout the A-5 and I'm all done. It is ready for the next game day or for storage. The oiling will help prevent rusting during a long storage.

[LilBigMan]

Hmm, dont know why this wasn't stickied, but it is now. Great post!

[mythosion]

really good job!well done man! ;Dyour gun is the only thing that will never let you down if you take care of it!

PS i was looking for info like this thnx! ;D

[Decker]

[Tagged Post]

[a5chica]

Thanks for sure, proves very useful. Good post!

[chasem]

I noticed that you oiled a lot of stuff seperatly. I have just been putting a few drops of oil in the ASA and dry firing it, does this mean my gun hasn't been properly oiled for all the games I've played?

[pk]

Oiling the asa will lube all of the valve assembly and any regulators you might have. It will not be enough for the rear bolt, however it isn't hard to oil the rear bolt.

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For a quick oil imbetween times of play, first remove your air source, then you can take out the two grip pushpins and remove the grip frame from the reciever. Turn the marker upside down and place it imbetween your knees. With one hand, pull back slightly on the cocking handle to expose the rear bolt o-ring while you drop some oil on the bolt body & o-ring with your other hand. Turn the gun back over, make sure your safety is on & put the grip frame back on the gun, lock it in with the push pins. Cock it and release the bolt a few times. Add a drop of oil in to the asa, gas it up, and go play.

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It is good to remove old oil and re-oil the gun when your done playing that week. However, you do not need to completely take apart the gun unless you had paint break inside. To re-oil the gun easily:

Break Down:
Turn in your FVA so that it goes inside the power tube.
Remove your barrel.
Remove the grip frame (by removing the 2 push pins and pulling down on the grip).
Remove the tombstone (by removing the tombstone pushpin and holding open the tombstone latch).
Remove your RVA or rear-plate, take out the spring and spring pin.
Losen all of the set screws 1/4 turn except for the larger cyclone screw.
Tilt the gun and pull back on the cocking handle, the internals should fall out the back, place on paper towel & remove the oil on each piece.
Push some paper towel in to the rear of the gun and twist it a few times to remove the oil.

Re-oiling:
Drop a few drops of oil in to the reciever, 1 drop on the front bolt o-ring, 2-3 drops on the power tube (just to get it to slide in). Put the linkage arm on the front bolt and put it halfway in the gun so that the rear of the linkage arm is sticking out. Coat the bolt body and o-ring in plenty of oil, place it on the linkage arm, tilt the gun forwards and slide it in. Unscrew the FVA back to where you had it. Re-tighten your set screws 1/4 turn (hand-tight).

Re-Assemble:
Make sure the tombstone washer & o-ring are in place (or use a hex wrench to push it back in place, "Washer first, then O-ring"), then insert the tombstone & tombstone pushpin. Make sure your safety is on, put the grip back on the gun along with the front pushpin. Cock the gun, insert the drive spring and spring push pin, push the RVA/backing plate on and insert the two remaining push pins. Cock the gun and release a few times.

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If you had a ball break inside the gun reciever (not the barrel) that day or are going to be storing the gun for a long time, you should probably take the gun completely apart to clean everything really good. When taking the gun out of storage, the night before playing I usually remove the grip and add oil to the rear bolt (like in the start of this post) and add some oil to the asa.