Hello all,
I just joined this forum because it was one of the few places online to have mentioned the Winstar HS 550 anytime recently.
There’s a chance for me to possibly buy one, but in spite of being in great shape it doesn’t have enough power to project a pellet out of the barrel. I’m guessing it’s likely a bad seal (maybe the main spring?).
Parts and support for this long discontinued airgun seem non-existent. Has anybody worked on one before, or know what type or size of seals it used so I could try a DIY repair?
i would think the spring would be okay but the piston seal and breech seal would be in need of replacement
parts diagrams are not to be found the pistol was last made in 2002 or before
it would be a project for a creative buyer
the beech seal could be a simple Oring or ??? but the pistol seal with no pictures could be anything
so, there is not enough to form a opinion what it will take
posted in the UK to see if they have any info may take some time
At one time, I had all three Rutten products.... HS550, Winstar Mach1, and the electronic Airstar. All were great quality and well engineered. The HS550 was mint in the box and I never had to take it apart. However, I did have to replace the piston seal on the Winstar Mach1. The original piston seal is no longer available, so I got my machinist to rework the piston head to take a Diana 26mm seal. MY point is, if the HS550 utilizes the same seal it is certaily doable. I have the drawing for the rework. Look at the pics.
Thanks guys. I was hoping a piston seal from a more common airgun could be made to work, reshaping the piston itself is beyond my tinkering skills.
I'll probably make an offer on the pistol and hope its just an O ring that needs replacement. It's in really great shape with original box and papers, so I don't think it was used to the point of breaking, just that some 30+ year old rubber has crumbled in storage.
How much should I expect an airgun-smith to charge to fabricate a new piston seal if thats what it needs?
i think most smiths that are making a living at it, would not touch it
the reason is they would have to do some R&D work to make a seal that they would feel would do the job and last
these pistols from what i have read were quite powerful
so, that would be the goal also
now could a solution be found and that answer is YES but there is not enough known about the pistols internal parts to know which way you could go
and don't think this problem is just this pistol there many guns that there are no parts and creates many wall hangers and paper weight
the pistol in the Blue book says 500.00 in 95% non-working i would say less than half and even less if it is not in great condition on the exterior
just some thought and opinion
Makes no sense to fabricate a seal. It takes a machinist 10-15 minutes to rework the piston head to accept a seal. The pic of the piston with the blue seal has been reworked to take the Diana 26mm blue seal. I don't know the diameter of the HS550 piston but that would have a bearing on the size of the seal it could take.....who knows it could even be an oring.
Resurrecting this thread because I bought the HS550 while at the gun shop picking up an M1 carbine. I thought the shop had sold it, but it turned out they just had it in the back for a few months.
Now I just need to figure out how to disassemble it and take a peek at the seals.
emveepee, I'd ask if I could send it to your machinist to do a reshape of the piston if that turns out to be the fix, but I'm unsure what the laws are for airguns in Canada.
When I get it apart (fingers crossed) I'll post up some more photos.
So I finally had time to sit down and take a look at this pistol.
Turns out it’s probably just a missing o-ring. I’m far from an airgun expert, but I probably should have realized it wasn’t there.
the piston seal looks ok, another O-ring looks like it should be replaced, but is in decent enough shape.
I didn’t have a correct size o-ring (~1/3 inch outside diameter) but fashioned a test seal from 8-10 layers of gaffers tape, and was able to get the gun working, probably at a significantly lower velocity than factory.
I’m going to try to pick up a replacement o-ring this week and hope that’s the only thing needed.
After finding an “almost right” o-ring locally, I ordered one online that I suspected had the right dimensions, and it all worked out. It’s now shooting very nicely, and seems to have a good amount of power. I’m going to try some heavier weight pellets to see if they give better accuracy.
I’m sorry Jim, I think it has officially joined my very small air pistol collection.
